Milking Parlour And Cider House Immediately South Of Park Farmhouse

A milking parlour and cider house, probably dating to around 1850 and of unknown architectural origin, with alterations made in the 1980s. The building forms part of the home farm of Somerhill, now within the Hadlow Estate. It is primarily brick construction with timber framing visible below the eaves, and has a peg-tile roof featuring fleur de lis crested ridge tiles.

The building was designed as part of a picturesque Victorian farmstead, alongside contemporary farm buildings intended to complement the Vernacular Revival style of the adjacent farmhouse. It is located south of Park Farmhouse, oriented on a north-south axis with a west-facing front overlooking a lane that leads past the farmstead to the estate laundry. Originally, the main block contained a cider house to the north and machinery to the south, and an adjoining block to the south may have been a cartshed. A milking parlour is situated to the rear to the north-east, under a two-span roof, and has been altered and adapted for refrigerated fruit storage.

The west front is asymmetrical with a three-window arrangement, plus a lower-roofed block at the right. A brick ramp runs along the front on the left, reflecting the sloping ground. A prominent jettied timber-framed gable is centrally positioned, supported by curved brackets with a pendant at the apex and further moulded brackets to the verges. It contains original paired plank doors with a glazed overlight and glazed flanking panels. Dormers with two-light casement windows (two panes per light) are located to the left and right, along with a similar window under the eaves to the right of the paired doors. A timber loft door is to the left. Two-light casement windows are on the ground floor to the right, and a probably 20th century door is on the ground floor left. The single-storey block to the south has a central gable with moulded verges brackets above an original two-leaf full-height door with a glazed overlight. The left return of the main block is tile-hung on the first floor, with brickwork below. The gable ends of the milking parlour feature four-light windows and curved braces in the gables.

The interior of the milking parlour is two bays deep, and some posts have been removed to accommodate the fruit storage unit.