Inigo Jones
Traditionally the basic design has been ascribed to Inigo Jones, but many an expert has expressed doubt and, nowadays, the weight of learned opinion seems to be against any such association. Jones's acknowledged façades are all strictly classical and none resembles Chilham – its hexagonal shape is unique in England.
In his time, experimentation with geometry in architecture was somewhat in vogue. In London's Soane Museum are plans of hexagonal and triangular houses designed by John Thorpe, a famous architect of the day, with several great houses to his name. In the 19th century some experts, knowing him to have been active in Kent in 1610–13, unequivocally attributed Chilham to him and this view remains current in some quarters. Yet the Thorpe school of thought does have a disadvantage.
The reputed link with Jones derives from a plan from the castle archive showing the original ground floor layout; this is unsigned and the handwriting is not that of the Master, but, intriguingly, the paper does have the same watermark as others elsewhere with Jones's signature.
The mystery is likely to persist; the attribution to Jones has a long history and persistent legends are sometimes found to be based on fact. Arthur Bolton, Emily Wildman's son, eminent architectural historian and Curator of Sir John Soane's Museum, pursued the debate at some length almost 100 years ago and, over a century before that, Thomas Heron owner of the castle in the late 18th century features it in his “Antiquities of Chilham”. Heron suggests that Jones's “first style” was “that bastard style then used, called King James Gothic”. His obvious abhorrence for what we now term “Jacobean” was shown by the time and money he spent remodelling the building's exterior in his own version of the latest classical taste, eliminating several of the building's original features. The ebb and flow of fashion and the power of the owners' money has brought change to the castle more than once in the past 400 years.
This aside, it is possible that Jones had something to do with the original design, but nobody can be sure
© Michael H Peters 2008