Harrock House Lodge including gate pier

Harrock House Lodge including gate pier

A one-and-a-half storey dwelling in Picturesque Gothic style, thought to have been constructed around 1851 as the entrance lodge to Harrock House. It was built for the Reverend Henry Kingsmill, who occupied Harrock House at that time.

The external walls are constructed of uncoursed sandstone, probably Horsham stone, with ashlar window dressings. Some upper areas are hung with tiles, and the roofs are covered with a mixture of plain peg tiles and fish-scale tiles.

The building is irregular and asymmetrical on plan. The principal range is approximately rectangular, with projecting bays and gables. A small offset extension containing an oratory to the north-east corner was added around the turn of the 20th century. A linear range extends south from the west side, containing the kitchen at ground-floor level. Historic Ordnance Survey maps show this was originally mirrored by a similar range extending north into the rear garden, which has since been demolished and replaced by a modern conservatory to the west elevation.

On the ground floor of the principal range are a dining room, living room and study. The first floor contains a bathroom and three bedrooms (one with an attached dressing room) within the principal range. The south-west bedroom leads to another dressing room and bathroom within the west range.

The south elevation faces the A272 and is flanked by gable ends, with the kitchen range projecting forward to form an L-shape. The ground floor is of uncoursed stone while the upper floor is hung with tiles. The upper levels of both gable ends are half-timbered with wavy bargeboards to the eaves and casement windows. In the corner of the L-shape is a triangular dormer with wavy bargeboards framing a tripartite Gothic window with timber plate tracery, flanked by a pair of raking half-dormers with casement windows. Below the triangular window is an open porch with timber posts and curvilinear braces supporting a tiled canopy. Below the east gable end is a canted bay window. A twin chimney stack of stone is a prominent feature; historic photographs show the original was topped with an oversailing parapet, now truncated.

The east elevation faces the driveway to Harrock House. There is a prominent central gable end with a bay window to the ground floor, a casement window above, and between them a diamond-shaped stone plaque bearing the Reverend Kingsmill's monogram. To the south is a small ground-floor casement window and a full half-timbered and gableted dormer window above, carried on three moulded stone corbels. The entrance door is sheltered by a tiled canopy built into the corner formed by the projecting gable. This elevation is largely of stone construction, with a small section of hung tiles between the central gable and the oratory extension. The latter was added around the turn of the 20th century in similar stone construction, with a tiled roof over a pointed Gothic window.

The north elevation facing the rear garden has several catslide roofs, a partly rendered first-floor dormer extension with a secondary chimney stack, and at ground floor another bay window and gabled porch similar in design to those on other elevations. The west elevation is the most altered, with the demolished rear range exposing rendered walls at ground-floor level and hung tiles above. Fenestration comprises casement windows that may be modern replacements.

Internally, most ground-floor rooms have dado panelling topped with a shallow shelf. Modern wooden flooring has been laid throughout the ground floor (although the conservatory floor is tiled), and the timber staircase appears to be a modern replacement. The dining room and study retain corner fireplaces sharing a chimney stack; the study fireplace has an apparently original stone mantelpiece with decorative scrollwork.

The grandest room is the living room, which is Gothic in character. It has dark stained timber panelling to dado level and to the deeply-recessed bay windows, which incorporate fine joinery and built-in shelving. The exposed ceiling beams are also of dark stained timber. The living room has an original brick fireplace and a stone mantelpiece decorated with a pair of millrind motifs, elements of the Kingsmill family crest. In one corner is the early 20th-century oratory extension, a small chapel-like space with a pointed Gothic window with geometrical tracery. On the opposite side of the room is a small cross-shaped window allowing visibility of visitors approaching the east entrance.

The first-floor rooms appear to have been recently refurbished and modernised, but some surviving dado shelving and plank-and-batten doors remain.

Immediately south-east of the lodge on the west side of the driveway leading to Harrock House is one of the original stone gate piers. It is constructed of irregularly-shaped stone blocks similar to the lodge, with chamfered corners and a moulded stone coping.

The modern conservatory attached to the north-west of the building is excluded from the listing.