Former Riding School and Prospect Tower at East Sutton Park is a Grade II listed building in the Maidstone local planning authority area, England. First listed on 18 December 1985. Gymnasium, outbuilding.
Former Riding School and Prospect Tower at East Sutton Park
- WRENN ID
- other-lancet-rowan
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Maidstone
- Constituency
- Weald of Kent MP: Katie Lam (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 18 December 1985
- Type
- Gymnasium, outbuilding
- OS grid reference
- TQ 828 494
- Coordinates
- 51.21493, 0.61651
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The former Riding School and Prospect Tower at East Sutton Park, now used as a gymnasium and outbuildings, was built in the mid-19th century by C.J. Richardson. The structure is made of red brick in Flemish bond, resting on a coursed stone plinth, with plain tile roofs. The riding school is positioned at right angles to the yard on the left, while the tower is on the right, overlooking the Weald, with a link building connecting the two.
The riding school features a two-storey entrance gateway with a broad octagonal stair turret on the left. The ground floor and first floor of the turret are designed as a battered plinth. The stair turret is battlemented, and the gateway has a gable with moulded kneelers, though the finial is missing. An octagonal brick stack is located on the right side, with a ventilation slit in the gable. The first floor of the stair turret has a single light, and the gatehouse has a two-light leaded casement beneath a brick band. A tall, four-centred arched gateway with rubbed brick voussoirs leads to the entrance, which has 20th-century double doors in the rear wall. There is also a four-centred arched doorway leading to an iron spiral staircase in the turret. The body of the riding school has a left side elevation with five alternating buttresses and slit windows. Inside, there is a balcony with two rows of turned balusters at the west end.
The link building is constructed of banded red and grey brick and is a single-storey structure set back, connecting the rear walls of the gatehouse and the Prospect Tower. It features a lean-to canopy supported by paired Doric columns, raised to a half hip over the center.
The Prospect Tower includes a two-storey building to the left that resembles the gatehouse but lacks an archway. The tower itself is a three-stage octagonal structure with battlements and a taller battlemented stair turret, featuring broad slit windows at each stage and a four-centred arched doorway at the base to the west. The interior has not been inspected.
Local climate
Former Riding School and Prospect Tower at East Sutton Park sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 79% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 61% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 26 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 72% of listed buildings. Of these, 12 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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