Broadhurst Manor Including Attached Walls To East And West

Broadhurst Manor is a large house of late 16th-century origin, substantially altered and enlarged in the 20th century. The building represents the surviving part of a mansion; the remainder was demolished around 1780. The house was restored and greatly enlarged in 1934, with some re-fenestration undertaken in the late 17th century and further internal fittings and re-fenestration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The southern part contains the original building, with a 1930s matching wing added to the north in similar style and materials. The west front is timber-framed with plastered infill. The south front is of red brick with grey headers. The northern and southern gables of the east front are tile-hung, with the remainder of the southern front in red brick with stone dressings. The roof is entirely covered with Horsham stone slabs except for the south-facing slope, which is tiled. There are six tall clustered brick chimneystacks. The plan is now U-shaped, with the original part of the building forming an L-shape.

The entrance front (north side of south wing) is box-framed timber construction with plastered infill, two storeys and attics with one hipped dormer and irregular 19th-century casements. A deep brick plinth runs along the base. An early 20th-century gabled wood and brick porch stands to the right with pendant and a 20th-century plank door. Attached to the north wall is a brick wall with a two-centred early 20th-century stone archway dated 1926 with the initials JC. A two-storey timber-framed extension of circa 1934 occupies the angle of the west face of the entrance front. The west front then has a further early 20th-century lean-to built onto the original part of the building, with two hipped dormers. In the centre of the entrance front is a timber-framed section of one bay, two storeys and attics, erected in 1934 but reusing old timbers, possibly from a gatehouse. This has bargeboards and pendant, a coved cornice above the first floor, an oriel window, a box frame to the first floor and close-studding to the ground floor. The north wing is of the 1930s, L-shaped in matching building materials to the original part of the house; to the right it is timber-framed with plastered infill of one storey and attics with two hipped dormers, and to the left is a projecting wing of one bay of red brick with stone dressings to the ground floor and tile-hung above.

The south front comprises two storeys and attics of red brick with grey headers and incorporates three massive external chimneystacks built of stone with brick tops; the central one has two small mullioned windows with leaded lights to the principal bedroom on the first floor. Late 17th-century leaded light casements with cambered brick heads, a brick band, stone plinth and a 19th-century lead rainwaterhead are features of this elevation.

The east front's southern part, in the original building, is three storeys and attics in red brick with stone dressings except for the upper part of the southern gable, which is tile-hung. The lower floor windows are 17th-century stone mullioned windows; the other windows are original mullioned windows re-cut. An attached wall at the south-west corner has 17th-century English bond brickwork and a 19th-century two-centred stone arch with blank panels. The northern part is a 1930s wing comprising a central gable with oriel window and arched entrance flanked by sidelights, and a right-side wing of two storeys and attics in red brick with stone dressings, three windows and a massive central external stone chimneystack.

The interior contains a fine late 16th-century oak main staircase extending from the cellar to the attics, with square balusters, a square newel post and carved knops at the cellar and top floor levels. Two very rare wooden siege doors stand at the top of the staircase. Exposed framing with carpenters' marks is visible. The cellar is brick-built with slate shelves. The Dining Room has 1930s linenfold panelling. The Library has late 19th-century panelling, a ceiling with chamfered floor joists and an overmantel with Jacobean carving in 17th-century style. The Herb Room contains a 19th-century stone fireplace and cupboard. A room adjoining the Herb Room has a four-centred late 16th-century fireplace with Tudor roses in the spandrels and an overmantel with three round-headed arches, fluted pilasters and a mutule frieze. The Ballroom has a stone fireplace and panelling of 1930s date. The first floor shows exposed framing with carpenters' marks. The principal bedroom contains a stone late 16th-century fireplace, some 17th-century panelling, 19th-century panelling and a cupboard lined with old Delft tiles. An alcove behind the fireplace with windows may perhaps have been used as a powder closet. An adjoining Dressing Room has 19th-century panelling and a cupboard. A guest bedroom, approached up a separate flight of stairs, has an early 20th-century brick fireplace with wooden bressumer and two plank doors with large hinges and latches.

The manor belonged to the Michelborne family until 1656, when it was sold to Edward Lightmaker the elder, a citizen and brewer of London. His will of 1658 bequeathed, among other items, "my iron furnace called Horsted Furnace, and the watermill near unto the same adjoining, to my wife Saphirah". Saphirah was sister to Robert Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow, who lived with her in Broadhurst Manor on his retirement from 1674 to 1684. Alterations and extensions to the house in the 1920s and 1930s were carried out by the Clark family.