Summary

The north range along Stone Court (North Wing) is fully cellared and is used for storage. At ground and first floor level the suites of rooms represent extensive remodelling of the range during the 18th century with little surviving primary fabric visible. Surviving medieval roof trusses at attic level indicate that a range of high-status apartments were originally in situ within the North Wing. The north range of Water Court comprises the principal kitchen accommodation, with servery to the west and subsidiary storerooms and offices to the east. The North Range forms part of the family apartments and is not open to the public.

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Description

The north range along Stone Court (North Wing) is fully cellared, returning below the northern end of the west range to abut the north side of Bourchier’s Tower and, to the east, extending below the service rooms at the north end of the Great Hall and beneath the Kitchen Lobby. The main section of the cellar, which runs below the north range proper (Cellar Areas 2 and 3, L.25 and L.26) is c. 30m long x 4.65m wide and stands 2.12m high to the underside of the ground floor. It is terraced into the rising ground to the south such that the base of the northern wall is level with the Queens Court, while the south wall is effectively at basement level, c.2m below the pavement of the Stone Court. It is accessed from the exterior, via a wide, central doorway with four-centred head in the north wall giving onto the Queen’s Court and is lit by a series of six, rectangular single-light windows. At ground floor level, a suite of rooms are served by a lateral passage or corridor (G.68: Black Boy Passage) which runs the full length of the range, returning southwards at the west end and extending to the double doorway giving onto the entrance passageway of Bourchier’s Tower. The first floor of the Stone Court north range has been extensively remodelled and little primary fabric survives, or at least remains visible. The accommodation as survives today is ostensibly as remodelled, in the latter part of the 18th century, for a visit to Knole by George III in 1793 (Phase 5B) for the christening of George Sackville, the 4th Duke. Within the roofspace of the north range (S.36 & S.37), a series of five partially surviving trusses of superior quality survive that relate, most probably, to the Phase 2A arrangements of the range. The five trusses, in addition to an implied sixth, lost truss define five bays of a range of high status apartments at first floor level.

The north range of Water Court comprises the principal kitchen accommodation, with servery to the west and subsidiary storerooms and offices to the east. The courtyard elevation is dominated by a large, central stone-built stack, with fenestration of two-light windows with four-centred heads to the west. Immediately east of the stack at ground floor level is a former opening, 3m wide, arched in brick and blocked in ragstone rubble. An 18th century stair turret (Cooks Tower) rises in the north east corner of the courtyard.

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