Plumpton Place

PLUMPTON PLUMPTON 1. 5206 Plumpton Place TQ 31 SE 9/210 17.3.52. II*

1. Built by John Mascall in 1568, with some alterations or additions in the C17. Then, after being reduced to the status of cottages in the C18 and C19 it was restored and adapted in 1928 by Sir Edwin Lutyens for Edward Hudson, the first Editor of "Country Life". The house is surrounded by a moat on the north and west sides and by one of 2 adjoining lakes on the east and west sides. It is a timber-framed building, the timbering with plaster infilling being exposed in the north wall. The main front, which is E-shaped, faces west and is now ronted with flints with red brick window dressings and quoins. Tiled roof. Two storeys and attic. Five windows, 3 gabled projections, the outer ones containing attic windows. The centre one contains the porch with a 4-centred brick doorway surmounted by a stone panel with the initials I.M. (John Mascall) and the date 1568. Between the centre and each outer projection is a bay window on ground and first floor with small blind gable over. Casement windows with wooden mullions and transoms. Flint and brick chimney breast on the south wall. L-wing behind to the east altered and enlarged by Lutyens but having an old red brick chimney breast on its south wall. Leonard Mascall, a writer of books on country pursuits in the time of Henry VIII, is said to have been the first person to introduce carp into England from the Danube, keeping them in the moat of Plumpton Place and also to have grown pippin apples here for the first time in England. Article in "Country Life" of 10 September 1932.

Listing NGR: TQ3604513453