IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Eccles Close, AYLESFORD, ME20 7GW

Preston Hall was the home of Sir Thomas Culpeper, Lord Sherriff of Kent in the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) but Preston Manor is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The current building dates from the mid 19th century and was built for E L Betts. More information http://www.culpepperconnections.com/archives/uk/places/prestonhall.htm It became a hospital and Tuberculosis Colony during WWI and the Royal British Legion Village is in the grounds.

"Hard to love" was Pevsner's verdict. The materials, ragstone and pale Caen stone, are rather insipid and the detail ponderous. By John Thomas, 1849-57, for Edward Ladd Betts. Grade II listed. In front is one of two statues, also by Thomas, depicting a lion grappling with a python. Grade II listed. At the time of the photo, which is uncertain, I believe this was a hospital, and now it is a nursing home.

Preston Hall was a manorial home, once owned by Henry Brassey and the Culpepper family. The magnificent Grade II listed neo-Elizabethan style building was built in 1850 now lies at the centre of the hospital. For more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Hall,_Aylesford

After a long and chequered history, including its use as the main administration building of the British Legion Village, it was announced in 2015 that the Grade II Listed building was to be converted into luxury flats. The English Heritage website describes the building and in particular this, the south facade, thus:- "Country house in landscaped park, in use as hospital from 1945 to 2012, converted into flats in 2015. 1850 by John Thomas for Edward Betts, in a neo-Elizabethan style. Coursed dressed stone with ashlar dressings, strings and main cornice. Parapets and Dutch-type gables with gable parapets with urns to plain and fish-scale slate roof with irregular stacks and octagonal chimneys on square pedestals. South front: Central block. Symmetrical about central 4-storey balustraded tower and with gabled end projections. 2 storeys with attics. 5 bays with transom and mullion windows in all bays, except in the outer bays on the ground and 1st floors which have octagonal projecting bays topped by bracketed cornices. Lunette-topped semi-dormers with shell decoration in lunettes in intermediate bays. Bracketed cornice to tower with range of square windows below. Large cross-window with bracketed cornice supported on stud-banded Corinthian pilasters below, on 2nd floor. Tower octagonal at this stage and transition effected by corner urn-like elements above main cornice of buildings. Large 1st floor aedicule with bracketed cornice on doubled stud-banded Corinthian pilasters on 1st floor. Central ground floor porte-cochere on double banded columns and pedestals, with bracketed cornice moulding, the ends flanked by scutcheons and griffins. Central arched door surround behind porte-cochere with double panelled doors and arched overlight. Wing to left: Symmetrical, of 3 bays, with further wing to left. 2 1/2 storeys, with semi- dormers. Gabled projection with canted octagonal oriel on 1st floor. 6 and 4-light transom and mullion windows. This house replaced an earlier one that was built and continuously remodelled; its form known in 1720 from an engraving by Kip and c.1750 from various paintings and engravings." The pair of lion statues flanking the entrance are also independently Grade II Listed, but have evidently been moved from their original locations during the residential development of the whole Preston Hall site. Please see Image and Image for views showing their original sites in 1999 and 2005 respectively. The English Heritage website describes them thus:- "Statues on plinths. Circa 1850 by John Thomas for Edward Betts. Stone. Rectangular plinths carrying statues of lion and lioness grappling with python and 2 dogs respectively. Plinths with strap-work and floral decoration."

Preston Hall Hospital was originally founded as Preston Hall Tuberculosis Colony. From 1948 it was administered by Preston Hall Hospital Management Committee, responsible to the Regional Hospital Board. Reorganization in 1974 changed the administration to Maidstone District Health Authority, and in 1993 to Mid-Kent Healthcare NHS Trust.