Boughton Monchelsea Place (also known as Boughton Place)

To the east of the house is a large lawn (once a bowling green) and a secluded summer house with excellent panoramic views. The house is dramatically situated on the scarp overlooking The Weald, and more immediately its own landscaped deer park.

This 24 hectare parkland supports 120 fallow deer (compared to only 50 in 1908) and is a profitable concern. However, extensive 1987 storm damage will be costly to repair. There is also severe storm damage to the entrance drive woodlands. The small park is riddled with springs and is well wooded with mature oak trees. A lake is visible in the centre of the park secluded with trees.

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform, Setting

Archaeological remains of an extensive late 17th-century formal layout set in a pre-17th-century deer park, enlarged in the early 19th century.

Boughton Monchelsea Place is located c 2km to the south of Boughton Monchelsea village and c 6km south of the centre of Maidstone. The c 40ha site stands in a rural setting, bounded to the north by Heath Road, to the west by Church Lane and Church Hill, to the south by Peens Lane and woodland, and to the east by farmland and woodland. The house stands close to Church Hill, towards the top of a south-facing scarp, a position offering extensive views out over the Weald to the south and east.

Entrances and Approaches

From the lodge at the north-west corner of the site, standing c 850m north-north-west of the house, a drive winds south through coppice and woodland, emerging into the park to approach the north-east corner of the house. This drive was laid out in 1818 by Thomas Rider when the north park was enclosed. A stone archway (C16 or early C17, listed grade II) between the stables and the garden marks an alternative entrance off Church Hill from the west. Before the changes of 1818 this was the main entrance, but the archway was moved and the design of the area altered as part of the early C19 landscaping.

Principal Building

Boughton Monchelsea Place (listed grade I) is a large country house built of ragstone under a plain tile roof and encloses a courtyard. The south and east ranges date from the mid C16 courtyard house built by Robert Rudston while the remainder of the house dates from alterations and additions undertaken in the late C17 and late C18. The embattled roof line and gothic windows were added in 1818-19 by Thomas Rider.

The house is separated from Church Hill road along the western boundary by the stables and farm buildings, which include a C15 or early C16 barn (listed grade II). South of the stables is St Peter's church and the walled churchyard (outside the area here registered).

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

Below the south and east front terraces are lawns, that to the south being decorated with a mid C19 sundial (listed grade II), that to the east being levelled to form a bowling green. This informal treatment replaced a C17 formal scheme as illustrated by Badeslade (c 1720), which extended mainly out to the east, traces of which remain as field archaeology.

To the north and north-west of the house are three walled garden enclosures, the two beyond the north front being laid out as flower gardens with a mix of perennials and shrubs. The third enclosure, to the north-west of the house, is laid out as an ornamental kitchen garden.

Park

The well-wooded deer park falls steeply from the south and east lawns forming a great bowl below the house, and within it stands the lake located c 400m to the south-east of the house on the site of a small C17 pond (estate plan, 1670). The south park is retained under pasture and is grazed by deer which have been present here for c 250 years (Badeslade, c 1720). Much of the northern section is covered with chestnut coppice and beech woodland. This area, known as Cox's Heath, was enclosed and brought into the park in 1818, while the remainder was certainly in existence by the late C17 when Sir Barnham Rider requested the diversion of a public footpath across it to the church. Several formal ponds existed in the park in the early C18, which persist as wet areas.

Kitchen Garden

Two of the walled enclosures to the north and north-west of the house were retained from the C17 formal garden scheme for use as kitchen gardens and orchards. They are both walled with brick and stone. Since 1938 the enclosure to the north-west has been developed as a semi-formal kitchen and flower garden divided by box hedging.

Maps

• Estate plan, around 1670 (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone)
• OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1870; 2nd edition published 1898

Description rewritten: March 2001

Amended: November 2001

Edited: November 2021