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the date 1599. One of these ornaments, depicting a
female head, is set up over the door of Yew Tree Cottage, which stands
on a bank off the Doddington road, not far beyond Dadmans and almost
opposite to the end of the lane leading eastward to Collyers Farm. The
other medallion, depicting Romulus, is inserted in the face of the
porch-gable of a house opposite to the south-east corner of Lynsted
churchyard. It is accompanied by the date 1827, worked in the plaster,
no doubt fixing the year when it was taken from Lodge after the partial
ruin of the latter. The front door of Anchor House remains fortunately
intact. It is fashioned by a process which in metal-work would be named
"lamination," that is to say it consists of two layers. That
now seen from the outside is the door from Lodge, while the original
door is still retained at the back, and fastened to it. It has the
interesting detail of a wicket, with ogee-pointed head, cut in the
middle of it, though now closed up permanently. Of the original hinges
part of the lower right still remains. On the wall within, to right of
the passage way, is seen the embattled oak moulding which surmounted the
screens. The most conspicuously beautiful feature of the facade, and one
which has now completely perished, was a large window of many lights
with oak mullions, richly |
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moulded, and divided by a transom into two tiers, on
the ground floor of the west wing. This window was not in the middle,
but considerably to left of the wing. Above it a smaller window, carried
forward on a plastered cove and consisting of six lights, also divided
by a transom, lighted the upper floor. This window was situated in the
middle of the west wing gable. The house is the property of Miss Mildred
Smith, having been acquired by her father, the late Mr. George Smith, of
Lynsted, at the sale and dispersal of the Barling property in 1901. By a
direct hit during an enemy raid in August 1940 it was almost entirely
ruined. The roof of the upper storey contains a handsome king post,
still in situ. The owner has collected and saved from the
wreckage a number of beams and stored them in the hope that they may
ultimately be replaced, if it should ever be possible to effect anything
like restoration. As it is now, however, the lovely old Anchor House is
as pitiable an eyesore as Hitler's bombing and the local Council's
yellow brick combined could succeed in making it.
Grateful acknowledgments are due to the Courtauld
Institute of Art for the use of the photograph, and particularly to Mr.
Marshall Harvey, L.R.I.B.A., for his excellent detail drawings. |