Synyards is a late 15th-century house in
Otham
Otham is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 523, with 204 dwellings.
Buildings
The village itself has been in existence since before the time of the D ...
, Kent.
The house was built in the late 15th century with additions in the 16th century and in 1663. It is a mostly two-storey
timber-frame
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
d
hall house
The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples wer ...
with a steeply-pitched plain tile
hipped roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus ...
. The house has a
jettied
Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the avail ...
bays on each end of the main western elevation with a
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...
d
dormer bay to the right of the midpoint which is dated 1663. A first floor was inserted at each end of the building in the 16th century and the third floor at the south end was added when the dormer was constructed. A variety of window sizes and types from various periods provide illumination to the interior. The walls on the ground floor have 16th century panelling in some parts and wall paintings of a lion and dragon and merman and mermaid cover the walls of the room in the north end of the first floor.
Synyards was restored in 1905 by P. M. Johnston. The house is a Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
.
See also
*Similar hall houses in Otham:
**Otham Manor
Otham Manor, previously known as Wardes, is a late 14th-century manor house in Otham, Kent.
The house was built in the late 14th century, probably around 1370, and was altered and extended in the 16th century. It is a L-shaped two-storey timber-f ...
** Stoneacre
*Grade I listed buildings in Maidstone
There are 42 Grade I listed buildings in Maidstone. The Borough of Maidstone is a local government district in the English county of Kent. The district covers a largely rural area of between the North Downs and the Weald with the to ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Image of Synyards from 1919
National Monument Record:ViewFinder, English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
.
Borough of Maidstone
Grade I listed houses in Kent