The Rodd

The Rodd is a country house dated 1629, with substantial restoration work in 1913 and an extension in 1953. It is located in the parish of Nash and Rodd, near Little Brampton. The main part of the house is constructed from English bond red brick and sandstone rubble, with stone slate roofs. The building forms an L-shape, with the main wing aligned southeast/northwest and another wing extending from the northwest end to the northeast, connected to a former stable block by a 1953 extension. A central projecting porch is a prominent feature of the main wing, flanked by axial, lateral, and gable chimney stacks. The house has two storeys with cellars and attics.

The northeast front has a continuous string course between the ground and first floor. The central porch is two storeys with a hipped attic, featuring a three-light mullioned and transomed window with leaded casements, decorated lintel, and a semi-circular archway with stone dressings. The porch’s inner doorway is square-headed, framed, and inscribed with the date 1629, with a studded panelled door. Dormer windows with three-light leaded casements flank the porch in the attic. The ground floor has a five-light mullioned and transomed window, a twentieth-century doorway with a semi-circular arched head and part-glazed panelled door, and a four-light twentieth-century leaded casement window. The southeast return of the wing features a gabled dormer window, a three-light casement, and mullioned and transomed windows to the first floor, alongside a twentieth-century window and a five-light mullioned and transomed window to the ground floor. The chimney stacks have restored diagonal plan shafts.

The interior retains many original features, including panelled partitions, fireplaces, doorheads, and doors. The northeast room has an elaborate carved wooden overmantel with Ionic pilasters, enriched frieze, a cartouche of arms, and flanking arcading. The room above has an elaborate mantelpiece with figures of Adam and Eve. The plastered ceiling in this room features geometric panels and fleur de lys motifs, with a decorative plastered entablature featuring paired wyverns. A framed newel staircase to the rear of the hall has shaped splat balusters, square newels, and ball finials. The Rodd is a fine example of a Jacobean house, notable for its retention of original fittings.