Fern Hill

Detached three-bay single-storey gable-fronted gate lodge, extant 1909, on a T-shaped plan centred on single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch. Pitched (gable-fronted) profiled terracotta tiled roofs including pitched (gabled) profiled terracotta tiled roof to porch with perforated crested terracotta ridge tiles, red brick Running bond central chimney stack having red brick header bond stringcourse below capping supporting terracotta pots, decorative timber bargeboards to gables, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on exposed timber rafters retaining cast-iron downpipes. Gritdashed roughcast walls with embossed date stone ("1812") to gable in "timber frame" surround. Square-headed central door opening with rendered "bas-relief" surround framing glazed timber panelled door. Square-headed flanking window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing timber casement windows. Set back from line of road at entrance to grounds of Fern Hill.

A gate lodge contributing positively to the group and setting values of the Fern Hill estate with the architectural value of the composition, one emblazoned with a date stone recording the early nineteenth-century origins of the estate ("1812"), suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on an expressed porch; and the decorative timber work embellishing a high pitched gabled roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, thus upholding the character or integrity of a gate lodge making a pleasing, if largely inconspicuous visual statement in a sylvan street scene.