Gerston Hall

Gerston Hall

Originally a private house, later occupied by a religious order and subsequently used as a bishop's residence. The foundation stone was laid in 1910 and the house was built for Mr George Trotter. The architect is not presently known, though the design is in the style of E S Prior. It is a Vernacular Revival style house constructed of unknapped flint with a knapped flint plinth, chalk dressings, and reused Horsham stone slab roofs with flint chimneysstacks.

The building has a modified butterfly plan with the garden front facing south and the north entrance front arranged as an E-plan with a projecting service wing and courtyard to the north east. It comprises two storeys and attics, retaining original mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements with leaded lights and original catches.

The north or entrance front consists of five bays including a central gable and a right side gable, with a further projecting service wing to the left. A large gable to the right displays bands of chalk and contains a four-centred arched main entrance with linenfold panelled doors. The adjoining bay has a hipped dormer and an eight-light first floor window, pierced by two hipped dormers and a nine-light mullioned window at ground floor level. The central gable features a tall three-tier three-light staircase window. The penultimate window bay is identical to the window on the other side of this gable. The service wing has three windows to the return and a hipped roof with a paired dormer containing five lights, supported on four Tuscan columns of flint banded with chalk. A central service doorcase contains a plank door with ornamental ironwork.

The west elevation has a half-hipped roof with two dormers at separate levels and casement windows. The gable is interrupted by a further gable set at an angle, with a large external flint chimneystack.

The south or garden front is curved and symmetrical, comprising five bays with the service wing extending outwards to the east. The centre of the main house has a hipped dormer and below it a two-storey large square bay, with an eight-light mullioned and transomed casement at first floor and a nine-light at ground floor. An attached curved wooden balcony with balusters edged with shingles features half-glazed doorcases to ground and first floors, terminating on each side with a large external flint chimneystack. The ends of the curve have hipped dormers and mullioned and transomed casement windows at ground floor level. Angled gables contain five-light windows at first floor and six-light windows at ground floor. Attached flint terrace walls enclose this front. The service wing has a hipped dormer, a first floor eight-light window pierced by two hipped dormers, two and three-light windows at ground floor level, and a round-headed entrance with casement window and door set at an angle, with a servants bell.

The east elevation has a large half-hipped gable to the south and a series of hipped dormers at two levels. Attached to this side is a tall unknapped flint courtyard wall with Horsham stone slab triangular coping and square corner piers topped with flint acorn finials.

Internally, the entrance vestibule has chalk walls and flint octagonal roof decoration, with a wide fireplace featuring a flat band and keystone. A chalk corridor with three round-headed arches leads to the staircase and a hall to the south. This hall has a ceiling with plasterwork featuring floral and grape motifs around the edges, a cambered fireplace with a stone arched surround with keystone and herringbone brickwork, and built-in oak cupboards with iron hinges alongside radiators. The dining room contains a fireplace with a very wide wooden bressumer salvaged from the demolished "Bear" inn in Horsham, with seats, wide floor boards, and two large paired doors. The library has a chalk four-centred arched fireplace with acorn-shaped stops, some narrow bricks, and decorative tiles. A further room contains a large brick fireplace with a diamond-shaped keystone.

The service wing retains the service staircase with wooden splat balusters and square newel posts, a sitting room with original brick fireplace, a kitchen with a wide fireplace and cupboards, a laundry with stone sinks, a dairy with slate shelves, and a larder with brick shelves and game hooks.

The main staircase has two round-headed arches leading to a gallery, with corridors featuring round-headed arches and original built-in cupboards and linen cupboards. Some fireplaces and all original doors survive. The attics contain angled queen struts and collar beams, though the rafters have been renewed. The iron wheel of a lift mechanism remains in place.

George Trotter sold the house in 1919 to Mr Philip Henderson. It was subsequently purchased by the Norbertines, a Pre-Monstratensian religious order. In 1956 the house became a hostel for Hungarian refugees. From 1965 onwards it served as the residence of the Roman Catholic bishop of Arundel and Brighton.

This is an intact and fine quality Vernacular Revival house of circa 1910, built of local materials, some of which were reused from earlier buildings.