Polepit Cottage

An elaborately decorated Lovelace cottage built in 1863 on the turnpike road at the parish boundary between East Horsley and West Horsley.

Located on the former turnpike road leading to Guildford, Polepit Cottage is a good example of thelarger cottages which Lord Lovelace built across his East Horsley estate during the 1860’s.

Constructed in 1863 this Grade II listed building has walls of knapped flint, red brick quoins anddecorated escutcheons on the chimney breasts. The windows and doors are elaborately embroidered with string courses of brick encircling the walls. This cottage also retains richly decorated chimney stacks.

Polepit Cottage is the final East Horsley house on the A246 before the parish boundary with WestHorsley. As such, local historian Pam Bowley, in her book ‘East Horsley: the Lovelace village’ suggests its name may well have derived from ‘Pulpit Hatch’ being the 19th Century name for a particular gate on the parish boundary separating the two Horsleys - at that time fenced to control the movement of livestock.

Perhaps reflective of that border context, she also reports Polepit Cottage was once the home for East Horsley’s village policeman.