The Former Motor House, The Croft (Adjacent To County Hall)

LEWES

518/0/10018 HIGH STREET 22-FEB-06 (South side) The former Motor House, The Croft (adj acent to County Hall)

GV II Purpose-built motor house. Built in 1905. EXTERIOR: One storey red brick with a gabled tiled roof. The main entrance front facing west has wooden bargeboards to the gable end, pierced by a hipped tiled pentice beneath a triangular three-light fixed casement. Below is a triple sliding door for vehicle access with opaque glass of ten panes to the upper part and plank panelling below. The south elevation has a battered brick buttress with sloping tiled cap, a pedestrian entrance with a plank door and wooden casement window. INTERIOR: Not inspected. HISTORY: The main house, "The Croft", which adjoins to the north, and to which the motor house is tenuously linked by a section of pipe, was built in 1899, architect Samuel Denman as a family home for John Henry Every, the son of the founder of the Phoenix Foundry in Lewes. The Motor House was built in 1905. Previously horse drawn traffic had been used, as the curbing stones at the sides of the main entrance and the stone mounting block a few metres north west of the main entrance serve to indicate. The stone mounting block is the subject of a separate listing. STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: An early and externally unaltered example of a purpose-built motor house which forms part of a group of structures around "The Croft" which demonstrate the transition from horse transport to motor transport. SOURCES: Information about the date of the motor house on a panel in "The Croft".