Rotherfield Park

Rotherfield Park is a country mansion built between 1815 and 1821 by Joseph Parkinson, with alterations and extensions from the mid to late 19th century. The building stands on an old site and was originally designed in a Tudor/Gothic style, with an irregular form and outline. The original stuccoed elevations were remodelled in the late 19th century with a more elaborate Victorian/Tudor refacing using Bath stone, retaining the building’s general Romantic form through bolder detailing.

The main structure is square, two storeys high, with a lower range to the west of the south elevation, and three-storeyed towers at each corner. The south-east tower is a slender octagonal turret, while the others are massive square blocks. The east elevation features two bow-shaped full-height bays on either side of a central rectangular bay. The towers are ornamented with pepperpots, and include parapets, a first-floor band, and a plinth, with mullion and transome stone windows. The north elevation incorporates an entrance porch, continuing the original form with plain Jacobean detail, including a pierced parapet, hood moulds, mullions, and a plinth. A more elaborate porch, in a Doric order, features an oval arch with a keystone, and a recessed entrance with a Jacobean doorway.

The south elevation maintains Victorian proportions, while the west side consists of a lower range with a ground-floor arcade of Tudor arches on octagonal columns. This arcade encloses quadripartite plaster vaulting and ends in a church-like brick tower of three stages with diagonal corner buttresses. The west side of the building incorporates later and altered units of Jacobean-style brickwork, along with a small section of crenellated parapet, possibly original.

A two-storeyed wing to the rear (west), pierced by an oval gateway dated 1891, provides access to the rear (west) from the north forecourt. The hall retains a decorative scheme from the 1870s, with stencilled decorations throughout, as well as features in the large and small drawing rooms.