Lake Cottage

Lake Cottage, originally the stable block to Fernchase Manor (formerly Ashurst Park), dates to 1867, with later 20th-century conversion to residential use. The building is constructed of Flemish bond brick with a chamfered stone plinth and sandstone ashlar dressings, and has red tile roofs and brick stacks.

The design is symmetrical, arranged around a courtyard. A central coach house is flanked by projecting stable wings, with a brick wall completing the courtyard. A rear wing extends from the coach house. The coach house has an attic and a clock tower with cupola. Gabled roofs are punctuated by coped gables with kneeler details.

The front elevation of the coach house features a stone parapet and a central gable containing a round-headed loft loading door, which is partly panelled and partly glazed with a keyblock. A stone band across the front rises as a hoodmould over the doorways and windows. There are three segmental-headed coach house doors with keyblocks and original plank doors, and pairs of 2-light casement windows to the outer bays. The clock tower has a clock face in a decorated frame, and the cupola above is covered with lead and topped with a wrought iron weathervane. The stable blocks have finials and shaped bargeboards to the gable ends, stone quoins, and round-headed windows. Stone bands form hoodmoulds over the windows, which have brick lintels and 20th-century casements with glazing bars. Inner returns feature hollow-chamfered stone cornices over a brick dentil frieze, with hoodmoulds over doors (converted to windows) flanked by casement windows. The stable blocks have 20th-century axial chimney stacks. The courtyard is enclosed by a quadrant brick wall with stone plinth and coping, and the gate piers have pyramidal caps above a brick dentil cornice. The rear elevation of the coach house mirrors the front and incorporates original round-headed, horned, 4-pane sashes. Original accommodation for grooms is present, including a stack with a corbelled brick cornice to the shaft.

The interior has not been inspected.

This is a notable 19th-century stable block.