Walking in the country: Ightham Mote

Saturday 17 September 2022

Ightham Mote

Ightham Mote, six miles from Sevenoaks, is a square, or perhaps rectangular, medieval house with its main buildings in the inner courtyard. The only entrance is over a small bridge and through a gatehouse. It is one of the oldest medieval manor houses to survive in England.

The house dates from circa 1340–1360 and changed hands several times until it was bought in 1591 by Sir William Selby. The house remained in the Selby family for nearly 300 years until the late 19th century when further further changes of ownership took place. In 1953 Ightham Mote was purchased by Charles Henry Robinson, an American of Portland, Maine in the US. He had known the property when stationed nearby during World War II. He lived there for only fourteen weeks a year for tax reasons. He made many urgent repairs, and partly refurnished the house with 17th-century English pieces. In 1965, he announced that he would give Ightham Mote and its contents to the National Trust. The Trust took possession in 1985 and in 1989 started a substantial conservation project that involved dismantling much of the building and recording its construction methods before rebuilding it.

One account has it that Ightham (pronounced item) is possibly derived from a Saxon (or Jutish) name, Ehta, plus the common suffix ham, so it means Ehta’s homestead – or, as we would say, ‘Ehta’s place’. The ‘mote’ is possibly because it might have been built on a moot – an ancient meeting place; or possibly because the house is surrounded by, yes, a moat. I am not convinced. Generally of course a mote is a speck of dust or similar.

Before entering the house you see the former stables now a bookshop across the grass. There is a then an interesting and amusing introductory talk about the house.