Purley Lodge And The Gatehouse

Purley Lodge and The Gatehouse is a house that has been subdivided, likely incorporating parts of a medieval church that later served as a rectory. The building features a complex structure with a fragmentary 13th-century core and 17th-century timber-framed remains to the north, which were refronted in the 18th century. Two mid-19th-century parallel ranges were added to the south, giving the external appearance a predominantly 19th-century character.

The Gatehouse, located to the east, is finished in stucco with incised lines and has a tiled roof. It stands two storeys high and features three sash windows with horns and an end chimney stack. The north or garden elevation of Purley Lodge, which includes the earlier wing, is also two storeys and stuccoed, showcasing three sash windows, two of which are tripartite, along with a doorcase that has console brackets and pilasters. At the eastern end, there is a tower with a hipped roof. The western elevation of Purley Lodge is two storeys with attics, also stuccoed, and includes two dormers that break through the moulded cornice. This side has a 2:4 window arrangement with sash windows featuring horns. There is a late 19th-century doorcase set in an angle turret, complete with a wooden penticed weather hood and a modern door.

Inside, Purley Lodge retains traces of 17th-century timber framing in the cellars, along with an 18th-century wine cellar. It features a probable early 19th-century staircase with three turned balusters on each tread and scrolled tread ends, an early 19th-century fireplace with an eared surround, and six fielded panelled doors. The Gatehouse contains a rare medieval lead-lined stoup, believed to have belonged to a chapel on the site. This may indicate the remains of a church first mentioned in 1291, which initially belonged to the Lords of the Manor but likely passed to the College of St Edmund in Salisbury in the 14th century, before being taken into the King's hands during the Dissolution. By 1595, the church was described as "a parsonage propriate sometime belonging to the dissolved College of St Edmund." By 1623, the building had become a rectory, a status it maintained until at least 1914.