West Horsley Place

West Horsley Place is a country house of considerable architectural and historical importance. The building has a complex development spanning from the 15th century to the 18th century. The core dates to the 17th century, with a 15th-century wing incorporated into the structure. In the early 17th century, the 2nd Viscount Montagu refronted the house, and further alterations were made in the mid-18th century by Henry Weston, who ordered the wings to be shortened.

The house is timber framed with exposed framing to the rear and brick infill. The front elevation is clad in red and brown brick beneath hipped, plain tiled roofs. The plan is H-shaped with the main front facing south; the north-east wing has been demolished. The entrance front is a composition of two storeys and attics on a plinth. A brick cornice sits over the ground and first floors, with a brick plat band following the shape of the end gables and a central Dutch gable at the parapet line. The end gables feature brick dentils to the right.

The front elevation displays six gabled casement dormers, three on either side of the centre. The composition comprises single bay wings flanking a ten-bay centre section. Bold brick pilasters to the first floor rest on bases carrying a diamond motif, with simplified composite order capitals transformed into canted plain projections that are echoed in the entablature above. Originally both wings projected three bays; the right wing was later reduced to a single bay and given a plain gable with a Venetian window, now blocked. Thermal windows light the end gables, with that to the right blocked, while a Venetian window occupies the first floor left and a tripartite window the ground floor left. A lunette window pierces the centre gable at attic level. The fenestration comprises ten first-floor and eight ground-floor sash windows with 16-pane glazing bars beneath gauged brick heads. A bold central brick doorcase with Doric pilasters frames a "Gothick" doorcase with brick hood mould and glazed ogee transome light. A single-bay extension set back to the left contains one window on each floor.

The west return front features three rendered stacks and irregular mixed fenestration of glazing bar sashes and leaded casements. Mathematical tiling appears on the first floor left, with an arched brick fireplace at the base of one stack. The rear elevation displays a rendered gable with cusped bargeboards and an ogee apex, an offset end stack to the right, and mixed sash and leaded casement fenestration. A large sandstone block from the 16th century stack stands in the angle with the wing.

The interior is of exceptional quality. The entrance lobby is domed with a band of Greek Key patterning. The Great Hall, originally part of the medieval hall structure, is now floored and contains a Doric colonnade positioned where the medieval screen would have stood. The floor is stone-flagged with an egg-and-dart eaves cornice. Six-panel doors sit beneath Doric modillion pediment overdoors. Four columns form the screen with geometric patterning to their soffits. A 17th-century oak staircase features a turned baluster balustrade and a decorated dado rail, with square newel posts and a square panel ceiling decoration above. A smaller stair at the east end of the house has square newel posts and square balusters with large spherical finials, together with substantial panelling, fielded in parts.

A first-floor room in the west wing contains a marble fireplace with deep leaf moulding and a broken swan-neck pediment, complemented by rose garland carving in deep relief and a Greek Geometric lintel to the window. The roof space of the west wing preserves a series of octagonal and plain crown posts, at least two of which have moulded plinths and caps with four-way bracing. In the centre range, lower gabled wing roof structures of earlier build survive.

The house is of considerable historic interest. It was owned by Carew Raleigh, son of Sir Walter Raleigh; by Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, known as "Fair Geraldine" from the sonnets of the Earl of Surrey; and later by the Nicholas and Weston families.