Ryeford Lodge And Ryeford Cottage

Ryeford Lodge and Ryeford Cottage are a pair of houses, originally a detached house, dating to the late 16th century, with a refronting in the early to mid-18th century and alterations in the late 19th century. The construction is primarily red brick with ashlar dressings, timber framing, brick and rebuilt artificial stone chimneys, and a Welsh slate roof. The building is two storeys with an attic, and has a three-storey rear wing.

The west front has a five-window arrangement; the windows have gauged brick flat arches and projecting keystones, with a short cornice moulding to the upper floor keystones. The windows were originally 12-pane sashes, but were replaced with early 20th-century casements. A central doorway is sheltered by a flat timber porch hood on shaped brackets, leading to an eight-panel fielded door. The front features a stone plinth and a stone plain upper floor band. A small Gothic doorway is set into a screen wall on the right. A 19th-century brick gable is visible at the north end, with two attic casements and stone lintels. At the south end, part of the gable is ashlar, with a former projecting chimney stack now flush with the left half of the end wall, brought forward; various drip moulds are present. Brickwork extends to the right half of the end wall, following the original line. The side of the rear wing displays large brick-filled panels of timber framing on the upper floor, with the ground floor rendered and featuring a 19th-century casement. The rear has a large, low-pitched brick gable built on a random rubble base, and a smaller gable to the right, with 19th-century segmental arched casement windows. A large attic casement features a timber lintel. A stone-coped battlement tops an attached brick retaining wall which includes a blocked Gothic arch.

Inside, the principal room has a compartmental beam ceiling with deep chamfers, and a large, late 16th-century moulded stone fireplace with trefoil-ended side panels. A former rear external wall is visible on the upper floor, displaying an area of close studding with a middle rail and a Tudor arched doorway; to the right is an area of square framing with a similar doorway. A late 18th or 19th-century roof structure is also present. The site was likely built as the mill owner's house for Ryeford Mill, with records suggesting the mill was active since the medieval period.