Mountains

Mountains is a large house built in 1865 by the architect G. Somers Clarke for the Johnson family, situated on the south side of Noble Tree Road in Hildenborough. It was re-roofed in the late 1980s, replacing the original peg-tiles with concrete tiles.

The building is constructed of hammer-dressed Tunbridge Wells sandstone ashlar with stone stacks. Its architectural style is eclectic, making use of Gothic and Tudor features. The service wing to the east is particularly baronial and battlemented in character.

The plan follows an almost identical arrangement to Sackville School (the former Foxbush), designed by Somers Clarke one year later and situated adjacent to Mountains. It features a double-depth plan on a west-east axis, with the entrance on the north side and the garden front facing south. A central corridor runs along the long axis, with principal rooms to the right (west) opening into a large heated hall containing the stair. The service wing occupies the left (east) side, with its own stair accessible from the corridor and a small service courtyard at the east end. The original 1865 plan remains unaltered.

The exterior comprises two storeys to the main block and three to the service wing. The north elevation is long and asymmetrical, with a 3:2:2:1:2 window arrangement. A one-window stair projection to the right of centre has a steep pyramidal roof providing a strong vertical accent. To its left stands the three-bay service block, battlemented with ashlar end stacks and grotesques carved below the battlementing. An adjoining gabled block sits to the west, followed by a symmetrical two-window entrance block with a Gothic doorway featuring an ogee head carved with blind tracery and flanked by buttresses with crocketted finials. The original two-leaf front door retains glazed top panels. The stair projection contains a massive transomed four-light stair window with traceried upper lights filled with stained glass and a frieze of blind quatrefoils below, topped by a pyramidal roof with a tall lead finial. The extreme western block has a five-light transomed window to the ground floor and a corbelled first-floor stack. Original fenestration throughout comprises stone-mullioned windows, some with transoms, glazed with plate glass metal-frame casements. The garden elevation overlooking a terrace is gabled to the south either side of the principal block. The left gable features a projecting stack with set-offs and a three-light window immediately above the fireplace. An original conservatory with a lean-to roof and gabled front adjoins the irregular east service wing, its lights fitted with cast iron traceried spandrels. The west end has a panelled door into the axial corridor with a depressed ogee arch and tall crocketted finial, adjacent to a projecting bay with a traceried parapet carved with grotesques above a panel of blind tracery and a four-light transomed window to the ground floor.

The interior is remarkably well-preserved. The entrance hall retains its original floor tiling and panelled plaster ceiling with decorated plaster roundels at the intersections of the ribs. An open-well stair with turned balusters rises beneath a stained glass window containing the armorial bearings of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, though the figures of the patron saints below were destroyed by bomb damage during the war. The principal rooms throughout feature plaster cornices, oak-panelled doors and marble or stone chimney-pieces. The service rooms retain most of their original fittings, including a dresser and kitchen range. The conservatory preserves its original floor tiling, benches and the working mechanisms for opening vents. Some first-floor rooms retain light fittings dating from circa 1920.

Mountains is said to be the only Somers Clarke house remaining in private hands and represents a remarkably complete example of an eclectic High Victorian country house. The original architect's plans are in the possession of the present owner, who also holds a full set of building and household receipts dating from 1926.

The building has group value with the lodge and stable block to the north east.