Court Lodge

Court Lodge is a house incorporating the retainers wing from a medieval courtyard house, originally Unimore Manor in Sussex. The medieval wing dates from the mid to late 15th century. It was dismantled, transported, and carefully re-erected here in 1912 as part of a project organised by the local artist Lawson Wood, supervised by his architect J.D. Clarke and the historian J.E. Ray. Some new building was constructed in a similar style at the same time.

The medieval section is timber-framed on new brick footings, with extensions built in the same style. The ground floor of the rear block of 1912 is constructed in English bond red brick. The building features brick and stone rubble stacks with brick chimneyshafts and a peg-tile roof.

The house is built to an L-plan across the hillslope, with a long main block facing south containing a 4-room plan with a carriageway running through to the left of centre. The room to the left of the carriageway has a projecting gable-end stack and external steps built in 1912 alongside it leading to the first floor. The room to the right of the carriageway contains the main stair in a turret projecting to the rear, constructed from spare old timbers. A late 17th-century stair is probably not from the original house. The original stair would have risen inside the room. The next room has an axial stack with an old, probably 17th-century fireplace that has been rebuilt here. A smaller room at the end is followed by a service crosswing projecting to the rear, which is entirely from 1912 and contains three rooms with a carriageway through. The first floor of the medieval range preserves an original corridor along the back with a series of small rooms opening from it.

The house stands two storeys high.

Externally, the central seven bays of the front comprise the medieval section. It is close-studded front and back and continuously jettied on both elevations. The seven-window front includes a shallow four-light oriel above the carriageway and a ground floor canted bay to the right of centre. The windows and casements display fine Arts and Crafts Movement workmanship, particularly those on the first floor, which feature patterned panes of leaded glass and good ironwork. The carriage doorway is a large oak Tudor arch with carved quatrefoils in the spandrels, matched by a similar archway at the rear. The main roof is gable-ended to the right and hipped to the left, with the rear elevation built in the same style.

Originally a series of Tudor arch doorways existed across the elevation, but only one now remains close to the return of the rear block. The first floor formerly contained a continuous range of windows serving the corridor, but these are now blocked. Old oak doorways open off the carriageway. A Tudor arch doorway to the right contains an ancient plank door, while the doorway to the left contains a 17th-century door with studded panelled coverstrips. The 1912 rear block is built in a similar style but employs more gables, which are usually jettied.

Internally, the medieval range is very well-preserved and of high quality construction. The 1912 work represents good Arts and Crafts Movement workmanship.

The house is situated at the top end of Old Groombridge village, which together with Groombridge Place forms one of the best-preserved and most attractive conservation areas in South East England.