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