Trottiscliffe Court Lodge
Has been described as a Possible Palace (Bishop)
There are no visible remains
| Name | Trottiscliffe Court Lodge |
| Alternative Names | Trottesclive; Trosley |
| Historic Country | Kent |
| Modern Authority | Kent |
| 1974 Authority | Kent |
| Civil Parish | Trottiscliffe |
Gundulf, Bp. of Rochester, was allotted the manor of Trottescliffe soon after his election in 1077. An episcopal palace was erected but by 1185 the buildings were so ruinous that they had to be rebuilt. It was again improved by Hamo De Heth, Bp. 1319-52, who built a kitchen two dining-rooms and outhouses and surrounded the house with walls. Some years after the Reformation the palace was leased out and is held by the Whitaker family (Hasted). In 1918 there was nothing left of the palace except the indication of its former size in the very high rooms of the farmhouse. A coating of cement had "utterly destroyed its character". The house is approached by an apparently 17th c. brick gateway and three of the original fishponds survive. Many old outhouses had been recently demolished (Norman, 1920). 'Court Lodge' (name confirmed by the owner) is a brick two-storey private residence of the 17c. The house has been refaced on the south side and plastered over. The lower courses of the W. wall are of flint and ironstone evidently a fragment of the former palace. An outbuilding at the rear of the house contains a fragment of flint walling in the west side with a small original square-headed stone window apparently in situ. The gateway, comprising two large square pillars of ornamental brick, each surmounted by a stone ball finial, and the S and E garden walls are contemporary with the present house. An Antiquity Model Survey has been done. Three ponds to the south of Court Lodge (shown by OS map, and certainly those referred to by Norman as Fishponds) are now filled in with waste, the northernmost two are grassed over, the southern one is boggy. They bear in shape little resemblance to artificially constructed fishponds (F1 ASP 18-JUN-59). (PastScape)
House. C18 with C19 alterations. Red brick, the front elevation cement rendered. Hipped plain tiled roof with central brick stack off-ridge to rear and hipped dormer to left
2 storeys; 4 window first-floor, C18 glazing bar-sashes with open boxes. 2 window ground-floor, both C19 glazing bar sashes, one single, one tripartite. Central panelled door in architrave moulded surround. (Listed Building Report)
Not scheduled
This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law
Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | TQ646605 |
| Latitude | 51.3201904296875 |
| Longitude | 0.360890001058578 |
| Eastings | 564610 |
| Northings | 160544 |
