Eartham House, (also known as Great Ballard Preparatory School ), Chichester, West Sussex, England

Eartham House is situated to the southern end of the hamlet of Eartham at map reference SU 939 094. The house and grounds are within a triangle of land bounded by two roads. To the north of the house, within the point of the triangle are a number of associated buildings and structures. This includes Saint Margaret's church, a small semi-circular late-18th-century orangery in brick with rock work window surrounds, a walled formal garden (now containing a swimming pool) and large walled kitchen garden (now housing school outbuildings), a dovecote and two attractive stone benches (one in the formal garden and one backed by yew behind the house) which appear to be contemporary with the 18th-century house. All these, including the house, are within the Eartham conservation area.

The grounds are principally to the south of the house on steeply rising ground, up to 94 metres. As you climb up the slope spectacular views of the surrounding countryside are revealed on three sides, to the west across the valley to Halnaker Windmill on the skyline, north to the Downs and east to Nore Hill. At the top of the hill, where there is a tree-covered mound amongst the woodland, there are extensive views across the playing fields to the south coast and Chichester. Clearly it was no mistake that this knoll between two valleys was chosen to develop a fine house and garden.

On the steep slopes rising from the two roads are woodland blocks which shelter the rising ground. The wood is principally mixed beech, ash, yew and some hazel coppice with evidence of a number of paths meandering through. It has an interesting understorey, on the east side towards the house there is a lot of box, holly and rhododendron which may be remnants of ornamental plantings. To the west close to the road there is evidence of an overgrown yew hedge alongside an old path which leads to a concrete-lined pond and flint wall alcove and on to an elegant wrought iron gate in some old iron park fencing. There is a large quantity of flowering viburnum in the hedge alongside the road to the west.It appears the basic framework of the 18th-century garden still exists, but in a very overgrown state. The outline of the woodland blocks as shown in the 1880 map has been lost somewhat due to additional planting and natural regeneration. The paths are shown on more recent maps and it may be possible with further research to trace them on the ground.

The main conservation issues are:-

Restoration of the clump surrounding the mount, by clearing the tree regeneration which now links it to the adjacent woodland blocks. Some action is also needed to prevent further erosion of the mount itself.

Conservation of the woodland blocks and restoration of the paths.

Conservation of the remaining small-scale features such as the wrought iron gates which mark the entrances to the walks, boundary iron park fencing, benches, pond and alcove.