Summerhouse in the garden of Grovehurst

The Summerhouse in the garden of Grovehurst is a Grade II* listed building, featuring a square garden tower with three stages, constructed of brick in a loose English Garden Wall bond. The rear basement stage is made of earlier limestone rubble, rising to about 2 meters in height. It has a pyramidal slate roof topped with an original oak ball finial and residual lead flashing at the base.

Access to the principal floor, which is elevated above the basement, is provided by a flight of original stone steps on the southwest side, featuring moulded nosing. The brick parapet slopes up and returns to the rear, adorned with moulded sandstone copings. The central entrance on this side has a segmentally-arched head and an original pegged wooden frame, although it has been superimposed with a later frame and a 20th-century boarded door. The southeast side, facing Grove House, includes a central unglazed window with blocked sections on either side, suggesting it was originally part of a tripartite arrangement. There is also a further blocked window on the northeast side.

The basement stage features an entrance recessed beneath the external stair on the southwest side, with a thin slate lintel and a segmental arch above, along with a 20th-century reduction in brick to the left. Additionally, there is a plain opening on the southeast side that leads to an adjoining 20th-century glasshouse.

In the upper stage, there is a simple rectangular opening to the rear (northwest) and an ocular opening to the southeast. Decorative clasping 'quoins' of brick construction are present at the corners between the first and upper stages.

The basement stage contains two shallow niches with timber lintels on the northeast side and a small square recess on the northwest (rear) side, featuring a plain original wall beam above, which shows evidence of mortising for former joists. The current floor is modern and made of concrete. The principal stage has a plastered interior with hardboard covering the apparently original ceiling. The upper, dovecote stage includes nesting niches and is topped by a primary pyramidal pegged roof structure.