Horsley Towers, Surrey, England

This drawing of East Horsley Park in 1839 shows it as Charles Barry designed it.
‘East Horsley Park’, 1839

There was a small tower with an onion dome over the front door, but during alterations in the 1850s Lord Lovelace added a porch in front of this entrance and a Great Hall, or Banqueting Hall as it was sometimes called, to the right of the porch. The large windows in this hall were emblazoned with coloured glass depicting the armorial bearings of the family.

The East Front as it is now with the Great Hall on the right Image: HCPS

The arched trusses in the roof of the Great Hall Image: HCPS

The great window in the Banqueting Hall Image: HCPS Image: HCPS

The southern aspect of the house now consists of three floors, but the original house had only two, as can be seen from the old photograph below, taken in the late 1860s.

Horsley Towers, southern aspect, late 1860s

Horsley Towers, southern aspect, present day Image: HCPS

Lord Lovelace married for a second time in 1865. His bride was a widow who had three sons, and another son was born nine months after the wedding. Perhaps there was a need for additional accommodation for his larger family, because soon afterwards another floor was added onto this side of the building.

The first addition to the house that Lord Lovelace made was the stuccoed tower (previously called the clock tower). From a photograph in a sales catalogue dated 1919 it looks as though the main tower was built of flint with brick quoins at the back and the two circular turrets on the front were also in brick. There is also evidence of a machicolated parapet at the top. The whole tower may have been encased in stucco during the 1920s or 30s, hence its later name, but it has now been restored to show the flint on the main part of the tower.

this project is in HistoryLink