Honeysuckle and Tower Cottage with attached walls and gateway, Ashridge

Honeysuckle and Tower Cottage with attached walls and gateway, Ashridge

Former estate workshops built between 1813 and 1821 to the designs of Sir Jeffry Wyatville, converted into offices in the late 20th century, with attached walls and archway.

The buildings are constructed of local Totternhoe ashlar stone with rear elevations of red brick and slate roof covering. Some repairs have been carried out in Portland stone.

The former workshops are located in the stable court to the west of the house, arranged along the north side of the former timber yard which has been partially infilled by Fairhaven, a late 20th-century extension that does not have special interest and is not included in this listing. Honeysuckle stands to the east and is linked by a curtain wall to Tower Cottage at the western corner. Tower Cottage adjoins the wall that forms the western boundary of the stable court, accessed through an archway.

Honeysuckle is a single-storey building under a hipped roof. On the short east elevation the upper half has lost its ashlar facing, revealing brickwork that has been whitewashed. An original studded door in a moulded depressed arch surround leads to a gabled open-sided shelter. To the left of the doorway stands an octagonal stone plinth of a gate pier, and to the right a two-light window in Tudor style with a moulded surround, depressed arch upper sections, leaded lights and a dripmould. This part of the building is in a particularly poor state of repair. The long north elevation is formed by the curtain wall, which has a crenellated parapet. This wall was originally blind but has been pierced by a series of nine metal-framed, multi-pane windows, probably inserted around the second quarter of the 20th century to light the rooms within. The rear elevation of Honeysuckle has been extensively rebuilt in the late 20th century in red brick, although some historic brickwork remains.

A long stretch of high curtain wall with a crenellated parapet runs between Honeysuckle and Tower Cottage. Tower Cottage replicates the design of the orangery tower, forming eye-catching features to create termini at each end of the building. The tower has a broached square base pierced by a three-light mullion window with diamond leaded lights, and octagonal upper floors defined by stone string courses. The first stage is lit by lancet windows in recessed moulded openings, and the second stage by tall, narrow, pointed arch windows with Perpendicular tracery. The tower is surmounted by a crenellated parapet embellished by gargoyles. It is flanked by recessed depressed arch openings under a mono-pitch roof, which have been pierced by metal-framed windows, followed by octagonal piers with crenellated caps. Attached to the pier on the left-hand side (south) is a short stretch of wall and a pair of square gate piers constructed of brick with stone cross-gabled caps. The rear of the tower is brick at ground-floor level. A single-storey brick extension under a mono-pitch roof was added to the east side in the 1970s and does not have special interest.

Adjoining the south pier of the tower is the curtain wall, which continues at right angles to form the western boundary of the stable court. The first section is faced in ashlar but is red brick on the inner side. A gabled archway with a moulded, pointed arch opening provides access into the stable court. It has angled stepped buttresses which rise upwards and terminate in cross-gabled caps. The lower half of the walls on the inner and rear faces of the archway is of red brick. After the archway the crenellated and buttressed boundary wall is of red brick on both sides. It has been breached twice by the insertion of Coronation Walk and Lazell, two buildings constructed in the 1970s, which do not have special interest and are not included in this listing.

Honeysuckle and Tower Cottage have both been modernised and almost none of the historic joinery, fixtures and fittings remain. The floor plan of Honeysuckle has been altered with partitions to create more rooms. Tower Cottage has been damaged by damp, which has caused failures to the floors and ceilings and stripped the walls of their finishing.