Court Lodge Stable Yard And Walled Gardens

Court Lodge's stable yard and walled gardens comprise a house, now converted to flats, with associated landscaping. The house has a 17th-century core, significantly enlarged around 1710, and further developed in the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries. The exterior is a mix of red brick, some areas cased with sandstone, and features plain tiled and slate roofs. The main south-facing elevation, looking onto the park, is three storeys high with a parapet and projecting two-bay wings at either end, each with a hipped roof and stacks centrally and to the flanks. Regularly spaced glazing bar sashes are present on each floor, some with missing glazing bars, all with keyed surrounds; the first and second floor central windows are round-headed. A low stone wall with regularly spaced buttress piers encloses a garden terrace projecting from the front. The entrance front on the left has three storeys and five bays, with a ground floor built out and featuring a canted porch with panelled doors. The right return, facing the church, presents an irregular five-bay frontage with a two-storey canted bay, a round-headed stair window, and a half-glazed door within a pilastered surround, topped by a flat hood on brackets and a semi-circular fanlight. The rear elevation is divided into four blocks, the right-hand section being constructed of stone, while the centre two have steeper slate roofs. A stable yard containing an 18th-century coachhouse and outbuildings adjoins the rear elevation. To the north-east lie two walled gardens, enclosed by red brick walls approximately 6 feet high, buttressed and ramped at intervals and featuring boarded gates with attached sheds and outbuildings. The southern garden measures roughly 20 by 35 metres, and the northern garden about 40 by 40 metres. Court Lodge became the residence of the Morland family, Lords of the Manor of Lamberhurst, in the mid-18th century, and was a prominent estate alongside Scotney and Bayham Abbey. Thomas Morland (d.1784) was largely responsible for the house’s present appearance.