Description

TQ 53 NW SPELDHURST FORDCOMBE ROAD, ASHURST PARK

7/480 Black Lion including walls
adjoining to east and west

II

House, once a public house. Late C17/early C18 with C19 additons, refurbished
circa 1980. Flemish bond red brick with burnt headers on coursed sandstone
footings, C19 brick to rear. Brick stacks and chimneyshafts. Peg-tile roof.

Plan: Double depth plan house facing north east. Central entrance hall once
contained the main stair. Front and back rooms either side heated by gable-
end stacks. Principal rooms to front and service rooms. Rear rooms rebuilt 2
storeys high in the early/mid C19.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace and cellar below the front.

Exterior: Symmetrical 3-window front of C19 windows in Tudor style. They are
slightly narrower than the original window openings. Centre bay first floor
has a small single light window but the others are oak mullion-and-transom bay
windows, all ovolo-moulded. First floor left is a C20 copy. Ground floor
ones have side lights and monopitch tile roofs whilst first floor ones project
only a short distance and rest on shaped brackets. Central doorway contains a
C20 door (narrower than the original opening); fielded 2-panel door with
fanlight and pedimented doorcase. Steps up to the door have been removed.
Flat brick band at first floor level. Timber eaves cornice and parallel roofs
are both gable-ended. 2 front gabled dormers with shaped bargeboards. Rear
has a 3-window front of C19 12-pane sashes about a central doorway.

Interior: Was not available for inspection at the time of this survey but
front is said to include a great deal of original carpentry detail.

Quadrant walls: House is set back from the road. From each end of the front
C18 or C19 quadrant walls curve forward in a broad sweep to square section
terminal piers. Walls are English bond brick with sandstone coping. Tall
walls ramping down in a curve as they turn to the front.

Vegetable garden walls: The large vegetable garden to let (southeast) and
rear of the house is enclosed with a tall C19 brick wall, flying bond red
brick with stone coping a chamfered plinth and interrupted by a series of
pilaster-like external buttresses.

Stable courtyard: A stable courtyard to right (north west) of the house is
enclosed by a similar tall brick wall. Carriageway entrance on the north west
side has brick piers and another gateway to the rear of the house though the
south east side has square sections and stone piers with moulded caps. C19
stable here is also sandstone, gable-ended with peg-tile roof. It contains 2
front doors.

Listing NGR: TQ5316639694

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26533414

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)