Stone Castle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Stone.
In the historic county of Kent.
Modern Authority of Kent.
1974 county of Kent.
Medieval County of Kent.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ58407405
Latitude 51.44329° Longitude 0.27786°

Stone Castle has been described as a probable Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Stone Castle. Now offices of the Blue Circle Group. Mediaeval and circa 1825. In the south-east corner of the building is a mediaeval, probably late C12, square tower of 3 storeys faced with knapped flints with some stone quoins. Parapet over it. Two arrow slit windows in the north wall and a circular stair turret. The other windows are modern. To the north-west of this is a house of circa 1825 which was altered by Henry Hakewill (died 1830). Two storeys 5 windows. Faced with knapped flints with long and short quoins of yellow brick. Stone stringcourse and cornice. Castellated parapet of knapped flints. Spindly stock brick clustered chimney stacks. Twin sash windows with dripstones over them. Projection of 3 storeys in the centre with similar quoins at its angles, porch on the ground floor containing a 4-centred arch, machicolation at the top and castellated parapet over. The west front has 7 windows and 2 bays of 3 windows each on both floors with similar quoins at the angle of each face. The interior has some trefoil-headed panelling of circa 1830. In the C16 the controller of Calais, Sir John Wyllshire lived here and Cardinal Wolsey is reputed to have stayed here on his way to Calais. (Listed Building Report)

STONE-CASTLE is an antient castellated seat in this parish, standing on an eminence, a small distance southward from the high road from London to Dover. The square tower at the east end of it is the only part that bears the appearance of its ever having been a fortress. It had once the reputation of a manor, as appears by the book of aid in the 20th year of king Edward III. when Sir John de Northwood answered for the manor of Stone-castle as half a knight's fee, which Henry de Northwood before held in Stone of the bishop of Rochester. (Hasted)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1099902
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 410707.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) TQ 57 SE 1031.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Wikipedia entry
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2000, The Castles of Kent (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 73
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 129
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 234
  Guy, John, 1980, Kent Castles (Meresborough Books)
  Newman, John, 1976, Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald (Harmondsworth) p. 550
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 357
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Hasted, Edward, 1797 (2edn), The history and topographical survey of the county of Kent Vol. 2 p. 384- online transcription
Periodical Articles
- 1990, Kent Archaeological Society newsletter 16 p. 2
  1989, Dartford District Archaeological Group newsletter Vol. 56 p. 2
  Gravett, K.W.E. and Renn, D.F., 1981, 'The tower of Stone Castle, Greenhithe' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 97 p. 312-18 online copy
  Newnham, E., 1931, Dartford and District Antiquarian Society (reports) Vol. 1 p. 74-78
  Norman, P., 1920, 'The palace or manor-house of the Bishops of Rochester at Bromley, Kent' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 77 p. 174-5
  Pearman, A.J., 1918, 'Residences of the bishops of Rochester' Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 33 p. 137-9 online copy
  Priest, G., 1909 Dec, 'Stone-next-Dartford' Invicita Magazine Vol. 1.4
  Sparvel-Bailey, 1888, The Antiquary Vol. 17 p. 261-2
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 245-6
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1908, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 2 p. 30 online copy

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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