West Range At Sissinghurst Castle

The West Range at Sissinghurst Castle is a stable range, later converted into a house and two flats, dating back to approximately 1490. It was significantly restored and altered in the 1930s and 1940s for Sir Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West. The building is constructed of red brick with moulded details in rubbed red brick. It features a plat band towards the right of the centre and gabled projections. The roofs are tiled, with a hipped section to the left and a gabled section with a tumbled parapet to the right; there are stacks to the end, ridge, and a projecting buttressed chimney breast on the front towards the left-hand end, the latter likely from the 1930s.

Return projections, also with tumbled parapets, are positioned to the left and right of the centre, each containing a single three-centred arched window with simple Perpendicular-style brick tracery, recessed within brick surrounds and sheltered by drip-moulds on the first and attic floors. The ground floor features wide three-centred arched recesses with boarded doors set within them. The central and right portions of the building are two storeys and attics, with four gabled dormers. The fenestration is irregular, with 14 windows on the first floor, including the arched and traceried windows in the gabled projections and a further five windows from the left. Five windows are located on the ground floor. The windows are wooden casements with diamond lattice glazing, set in rubbed brick surrounds. Boarded doors are recessed beneath the gabled projections, as well as situated to the right of the centre, and towards the right-hand end, each topped with a flat hood.

A central archway, flanked by projections, has a three-centred arched surround and stone mouldings. The spandrels are decorated with drip-moulds and crests. At the rear, the arch is flanked by buttresses topped with moulded octagonal brick chimneys, and there’s a parapetted gable between them at roof level. A moulded octagonal pinnacle tops the gable, sitting above a round panel over a brick mullioned window with a drip-mould. The rear elevation mirrors the east front, with boarded doors at the left and right ends and to the right of the centre.

Historically, this range once served as the entrance to a house that predates the later building built to the east by Sir Richard Baker, who inherited the property in 1558. A coat of arms, dated 1548 and originally from Carnock in Stirlingshire, is displayed over the inner archway.