HILDENBOROUGH NOBLE TREE ROAD (south side) TQ 54 NE 5/177 Mountains GV II Large house. 1865 by G. Somers Clarke for the Johnson family, re-roofed in the late 1980s. Hammer-dressed Tunbridge Wells sandstone ashlar; concrete tile roof, replacing the original peg-tiles; stone stacks. Stylistically eclectic, making use of Gothic and Tudor features, the service wing battlemented and baronial in character. Plan: Almost identical to Sackville School (q.v.), adjacent to Mountains and built one year later by the same architect. Double depth plan on a west east axis with the entrance on the north side and a south garden front. Long, asymmetrical, approximately rectangular arrangement with a corridor in the centre on the long axis, the principal rooms to the right (west) with an entrance into a large heated hall containing the stair. Service wing to the left (east) with a service stair off the corridor and a small service courtyard at the east end. The 1865 plan is unaltered. Exterior: 2 storeys to the main block, 3 to the service wing to the east. Long, asymmetrical 3:2:2:1:2 window north elevation. The one-window stair projection to right of centre with a steep pyramidal roof providing a strong vertical accent, the 3-bay service block to the left battlemented with ashlar end stacks and grotesques carved below the battlementing, the adjoining block to the west gabled to the front. West of this the symmetrical 2-window entrance block has a Gothic doorway with an ogee head carved with blind tracey and flanked by buttresses with crocketted finials. Original 2-leaf front door, the top panels glazed. The stair projection has a massive transomed 4- light stair window, the upper lights traceried and filled with stained glass with a frieze of blind quatrefoils below the window, the pyramidal roof with a tall lead finial. The extreme right hand (west) block has a 5-light transomed window to the ground floor and a corbelled first floor stack at the right. Original fenestration throughout of stone mullioned windows, some with transoms, glazed with plate glass metal frame casements. The garden (south) elevation overlooking a terrace is gabled to the south to the left and right of the principal block and continues the same style. The left gable has a projecting stack with set-offs, shaft dismantled with a 3-light window immediately above the fireplace. The irregular east service wing is slightly set back at the right end and built against it, with access from the dining room, is an original conservatory with a lean-to roof, gabled to the front in the centre, the lights with cast iron traceried spandrels. The west end of the house has a panelled door into the axial corridor with a depressed ogee arch and a tall crocketted finial. A projecting bay to the right has a traceried parapet with carved grotesques above a panel of blind tracery and a 4-light transomed window to the ground floor. Interior: Very well-preserved. Joinery, decorated plasterwork and original chimney-pieces survive throughout. The entrance hall preserves its original floor tiling and panelled plaster ceiling with decorated plaster roundels at the intersections of the ribs. Open well stair with turned balusters, the stained glass in the stair window contains the armorial bearings of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, the figures of the patron saints below were destroyed by bomb damage in the war. The principal rooms have plaster cornices, oak panelled doors and marble or stone chimney-pieces. The service rooms retain most of their original fittings including a dresser and kitchen range. The conservatory preserves its original floor tiling, benches and the fittings, still in working order, for the system of opening vents. Some of the first floor rooms retain light fittings of the circa 1920s. Mountains is said to be the only Somers Clarke house remaining in private hands and is a remarkably complete example of an eclectic High Victorian country house. The original plans are in the possession of the present owner who also has a full set of building and household receipts dating from 1926. Somers Clarke also designed Foxbush, now Sackville School (q.v.) immediately east of Mountains, in 1866. Group value with the lodge and stable block to the north east. Listing NGR: TQ5607348707