Description
Originally dating to around 1320, the building's importance lies in the fact that successive owners effected relatively few changes to the main structure, after the completion of the quadrangle with a new chapel in the 16th century. Nikolaus Pevsner called it "the most complete small medieval manor house in the country", and it remains an example that shows how such houses would have looked in the Middle Ages. Unlike most courtyard houses of its type, which have had a range demolished, so that the house looks outward, Nicholas Cooper observes that Ightham wholly surrounds its courtyard and looks inward, into it, offering little information externally.
It was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1985 by an American businessman, Charles Henry Robinson, who had bought it in 1953. The house is now a Grade I listed building, and parts of it are a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
There are over seventy rooms in the house, all arranged around a central courtyard. The house is surrounded on all sides by a square moat, crossed by three bridges. The earliest surviving evidence is for a house of the early 14th century, with the Great Hall, to which were attached, at the high, or dais end, the Chapel, Crypt and two Solars. The courtyard was completely enclosed by increments on its restricted moated site and the battlemented tower constructed in the 15th century. Very little of the 14th century survives on the exterior behind rebuilding and refacing of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The structures include unusual and distinctive elements, such as the porter's squint, a narrow slit in the wall designed to enable a gatekeeper to examine a visitor's credentials before opening the gate. An open loccia with a fifteenth-century gallery above, connects the main accommodations with the gatehouse range.A large kennel was built in the late 19th century for a St. Bernard named Dido is the only Grade I listed dog house.
In 1989 the National Trust began an ambitious restoration project which involved dismantling much of the building and recording its construction methods before rebuilding it. The project ended in 2004 after uncovering numerous examples of structural and ornamental features which had been covered up by later additions. It is estimated to have cost in excess of £10million.
A rumour is circulated that during the 19th century a female skeleton was found walled up behind a blocked service door. The door was shown by the Time Team special No. 21 and was actually a closet. There are no records of a skeleton being found and the rumour has not been entered into the 2004 tour booklet.
A Rose for the Crown, an historical novel set in the late 15th century, prominently features Ightham Mote. Anya Seton's novel Green Darkness also features Ightham Mote as a main setting, using the legend of the walled-up skeleton as a significant plot point.
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