Ground Floor of Former E Wing

This is a castellated Gothic gateway with flanking drum towers, built by John Giffard before 1797, providing access to a service court. It is constructed of sandstone ashlar on a narrow plinth and is symmetrical, featuring a prominent central entrance with a large four-centred chamfered arch. The arch’s key is ornamented with a sculpted head of Christ, and it has a returned, moulded label. Sculpted relief plaques flank the entrance, topped by a crenellated parapet. Short sections of crenellated wall connect to the drum towers, which have three string courses, the upper course being larger and simply moulded. The towers feature central blind quatrefoils and flanking blind dumb-bell-shaped gun-loops.

To the right of the southern tower, a contemporary section of ashlar walling is advanced and slightly concave, with canted returns and a crenellated parapet matching the gatehouse. Three niches with depressed-arched heads and moulded labels, each topped with a blind quatrefoil, are incorporated into the wall. The niches and quatrefoils are painted to resemble windows with intersecting tracery and leaded panes. A further section of similar walling adjoins this, connecting to the main house to the east; this section was moved from its original location to the west of the house in the mid-1960s.

Behind this screen wall, and adjoining the house to the east, is the surviving ground-floor section of the Jacobethan east wing of the house, contemporary with the gateway. Currently used as the house’s kitchen and service wing, it has a flat roof with a moulded parapet. The east face has an off-centre entrance with a deeply recessed late 19th-century door, featuring a two-part leaded light window above. Flanking this are recessed leaded cross-windows. The south face displays two six-light mullioned and transomed windows, connected by a moulded label-course that aligns with that of the main house.

Adjoining this to the south, a tall rubble garden wall extends around in three planes to the east, capped with plain stone. A slate-roofed brick and rubble lean-to is situated to the rear, previously a privy block. In the centre of the south-west-facing returned section of the wall, a contemporary Gothic entrance has a Tudor-arched head, a returned, moulded label, and chamfered reveals and voussoirs. The west return of the garden wall is of brick and is staggered in three sloped stages; a modern opening is centrally positioned, and the wall continues westward in two staggered stages before terminating.