Mounting Block, The Croft (Adjacent To County Hall)

LEWES

518/0/10019 HIGH STREET 22-FEB-06 Mounting Block, The Croft (adjacent to County Hall)

GV II Mounting block. Probably late C19 as the house to which it belongs was built in 1899. EXTERIOR: Carved from one piece of stone in a rectangular shape with three square stone steps, the top step now triangular. HISTORY: The main house, "The Croft" was built in 1899 by Samuel Denman, a Brighton architect, as a family home for John Henry Every, the son of the founder of the Phoenix Foundry in Lewes, Mayor of Lewes between 1903-05 and a local benefactor. Besides the horse mounting block situated a few metres to the north west of "The Croft" the main entrance of the house has stone curbing stones either side of the main entrance to prevent damage by carriage wheels. In 1905 a purpose-built motor house was built to the north of the house. Both the Croft and the moter house are the subject of separate listings. STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: This free-standing horse mounting block is an interesting survival of the age of horse transport and part of a group of structures at "The Croft" which depict the transition from horse transport to motor transport at the turn of the C20.