Benedict House And Benedict Lodge

Benedict House and Benedict Lodge are a pair of houses formed from a former group of oasthouses and an attached farm building, located in Ewhurst. The farm building likely dates to the 18th century, while the oasthouses were constructed in the early to mid-19th century. Both have undergone refurbishment and replacement of windows in the 20th century.

The property comprises two cylindrical oast houses to the east, with an attached farm building to the west. The farm building was probably originally stowage for the oasthouses. The eastern section of the farm building is three storeys high, while the western section is two storeys. Benedict House occupies the eastern section and Benedict Lodge the western.

Benedict House features two cylindrical brick oasthouses with conical tiled roofs and wooden cowls and fantails. These have been converted into residential accommodation over three floors, featuring small square fixed metal casements to the upper floor and taller round-headed fixed casements to the lower floors. A round-headed entrance with a half-glazed door and a small brick chimneystack are also present. The attached farm building is weatherboarded and has a tiled roof that is half-hipped to the western end, with a brick chimneystack in the penultimate bay. Benedict Lodge, occupying the western part of the two-storey farm building, has irregular fenestration with 20th-century wooden casements and metal glazing bars. There are projecting porches to both Benedict House and Benedict Lodge.

Inside Benedict Lodge, a reported drawing room rises the full height of the building, displaying an exposed roof structure and some visible cross beams. The interior was refurbished in the 1960s following a fire, and much of the original timber frame is no longer visible.

The name originates from the former ownership of the land by the Benedictine order.

The buildings are designated for their historical and picturesque qualities: the 18th-century weatherboarded farm building stands alongside the early 19th-century brick oasthouses, which retain their distinctive form, materials, and features despite subsequent conversion.