Little Thakeham

Last updated December 09, 2023

Little Thakeham is an Arts and Crafts style, Grade I listed private house in the parish of Thakeham, near the village of Storrington, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. Designed by architect Edwin Lutyens in 1902,^[2] the house was one of the first in which Lutyens mixed neoclassical architecture into his previously vernacular style. The exterior of the house is vernacular, but the interior has classical features, particularly in its large hall.^[3] The gardens, also designed by Lutyens, are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.^[4]

House

Lutyens' client was Ernest Blackburn, formerly the headmaster of a preparatory school in Southborough, Kent, who had retired on receiving an inheritance from his father, a wine merchant. His main interest was gardening. Over 1901–2 he made a series of land purchases, creating an estate of 130 acres (53 hectares), and devoted himself to landscaping it. He commissioned the architect F. Hatchard Smith to build a house on the site, but by April 1902 Blackburn was dissatisfied with the half-built brick villa. He brought in Lutyens, who advised him to demolish it, which he did. Hatchard Smith accused Lutyens of poaching his client, and the dispute was played out in the pages of Building News, which supported Hatchard Smith, and Country Life , which supported Lutyens.^[5]

Completed in 1903, the 12,480 sf house is considered one of Lutyens' best private houses. Laid out in an H-shape using locally mined coarse-stone, the exterior has weathered quickly to give the house a 16th-century, Cotswolds manor look. It consists of two storeys plus an attic, with two wings.^[6] The central bar of the H runs west to east, and contains the south-facing hall. Further to the east, continuing the line of the central bar, is an additional wing, originally the service quarters,^[3] which contains the only remaining walls of Hatchard Smith's demolished villa.^[5] The south, garden front of the house has four gables, one on each wing and two in the middle; at the centre is a two-storey, mullioned, polygonal bay window. The north, entrance front of the house has a central porch giving access to an east–west corridor, south of which are the main staircase and the two-storey hall, separated by a stone screen. The hall is lit through a classical arch by the two-storey bay window. The ground floor of the hall is lined with classically decorated stonework, with plaster walls above, and is overlooked by wrought iron balconies.^[3]

Gardens

Southwards from the house's garden front there are three descending terrace gardens, supported by retaining walls. The top terrace contains a rose garden. To its east are a lily pool and water garden. The third terrace is the main lawn. On its western side, a large, oak-beamed pergola on a raised bank projects out from the second terrace.^[4] There is also a Grade II listed garden house, originally a coach house with stables, designed by Lutyens.^[7]

The gardens are surrounded by apple, pear and cherry orchards.^[4]

Related Research Articles

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials and public buildings. In his biography, the writer Christopher Hussey wrote, "In his lifetime (Lutyens) was widely held to be our greatest architect since Wren if not, as many maintained, his superior". The architectural historian Gavin Stamp described him as "surely the greatest British architect of the twentieth century".

Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in the parish of Belton near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, built between 1685 and 1687 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet. It is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to follies within a larger wooded park. Belton has been described as a compilation of all that is finest of Carolean architecture, said to be the only truly vernacular style of architecture that England had produced since the Tudor period. It is considered to be a complete example of a typical English country house; the claim has even been made that Belton's principal façade was the inspiration for the modern British motorway signs which give directions to stately homes.

Eaton Hall is the country house of the Duke of Westminster. It is 1 mile (2 km) south of the village of Eccleston, in Cheshire, England. The house is surrounded by its own formal gardens, parkland, farmland and woodland. The estate covers about 10,872 acres (4,400 ha).

Melbourne Hall is a Georgian style country house in Melbourne, Derbyshire, previously owned by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, British Prime Minister from 1835 to 1841. The house is now the seat of Lord and Lady Ralph Kerr and is open to the public. The house is a Grade II* listed building; more than twenty features in the grounds are Grade I listed.

Goddards is a Grade II*-listed house in Abinger Common, Surrey, England. It was designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1898–1900 in the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. It was built "as a home of rest to which ladies of small means might repair for holiday" for shipping magnate Frederick Mirrielees. The west-facing courtyard garden was designed by Gertrude Jekyll. In 1910, Lutyens extended the building and adapted it as a private residence.

Great Maytham Hall, near Rolvenden, Kent, England, is a Grade II* listed country house. The gardens are famous for providing the inspiration for The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Tirley Garth is a large country house some 2.5 miles (4 km) to the north of Tarporley, Cheshire, England. The house together with its entrance courtyard walls are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

Park Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in the Round Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The horseshoe-shaped, three-part terrace of 48 houses was designed and built by one of Brighton's most important architects, Amon Henry Wilds; by the time work started in 1849 he had 35 years' experience in the town. Wilds used the Italianate style rather than his more common Regency motifs. Three houses were replaced after the Second World War because of bomb damage, and another was the scene of one of Brighton's notorious "trunk murders" of the 1930s. The three parts of the terrace, which encircle a private garden formerly a pleasure ground and cricket pitch, have been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage for their architectural and historical importance.

Thomas Lainson, FRIBA was a British architect. He is best known for his work in the East Sussex coastal towns of Brighton and Hove, where several of his eclectic range of residential, commercial and religious buildings have been awarded listed status by English Heritage. Working alone or in partnership with two sons as Lainson & Sons, he designed buildings in a wide range of styles, from Neo-Byzantine to High Victorian Gothic; his work is described as having a "solid style, typical of the time".

Orchards is an Arts and Crafts style house in Bramley in Surrey, England. It is on Bramley's boundary with Busbridge and 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of Godalming town centre. Described by English Heritage as the first major work of architect Edwin Lutyens, it is a Grade I listed building. The gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The property is privately owned.

Heathcote is a Neoclassical-style villa in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architect Edwin Lutyens, it was his first comprehensive use of that style, making it the precursor of his later public buildings in Edwardian Baroque style and those of New Delhi. It was completed in 1908.

Tigbourne Court is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Wormley, Surrey, England, 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Witley. It was designed by architect Edwin Lutyens, using a mixture of 17th-century style vernacular architecture and classical elements, and has been called "probably his best" building, for its architectural geometry, wit and texture. It was completed in 1901. English Heritage have designated it a Grade I listed building.

The Salutation is a grade I listed house in Sandwich, Kent, England. It was designed and built by Edwin Lutyens in a Queen Anne style in 1911–12, as a weekend home and country retreat for members of the Farrer family. It was one of the first 20th-century building to be given a grade I listing, in 1950. Other structures in the grounds received a grade II listing in 1986. It has been described by Nigel Jones as "the perfect house that many in Britain aspire to own", and by Arthur Stanley George Butler as "Sir Edwin's supreme rendering of the full Georgian idiom … This very perfect work establishes itself as a high peak in Sir Edwin's achievement".

Ince Blundell Hall is a former country house near the village of Ince Blundell, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. It was built between 1720 and 1750 for Robert Blundell, the lord of the manor, and was designed by Henry Sephton, a local mason-architect. Robert's son, Henry, was a collector of paintings and antiquities, and he built impressive structures in the grounds of the hall in which to house them. In the 19th century the estate passed to the Weld family. Thomas Weld Blundell modernised and expanded the house, and built an adjoining chapel. In the 1960s the house and estate were sold again, and have since been run as a nursing home by the Canonesses of St. Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus.

Marshcourt, also spelled Marsh Court, is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Marsh Court, near Stockbridge, Hampshire, England. It is constructed from quarried chalk. Designed and built by architect Edwin Lutyens between 1901 and 1905, it is a Grade I listed building. The gardens, designed by Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll, are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Homewood is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Knebworth, Hertfordshire, England. Designed and built by architect Edwin Lutyens around 1900–3, using a mixture of vernacular and Neo-Georgian architecture, it is a Grade II* listed building. The house was one of Lutyens' first experiments in the addition of classical features to his previously vernacular style, and the introduction of symmetry into his plans. The gardens, also designed by Lutyens, are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Folly Farm is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Sulhamstead, West Berkshire, England. Built around a small farmhouse dating to c. 1650, the house was substantially extended in William and Mary style by architect Edwin Lutyens c. 1906, and further extended by him in vernacular style c. 1912. It is a Grade I listed building. The gardens, designed by Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll, are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. They are among the best-known gardens of the Lutyens/Jekyll partnership.

Abbotswood is a country house and estate near Lower Swell in Gloucestershire, England. It is a grade II listed building and estate, of medieval origins and with remodelling and garden work to the designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens from 1901 onwards.

Craig-y-parc House is a country house in Pentyrch, Cardiff, Wales. Dating from 1914 to 1918, it was built for Thomas Evans, a colliery owner, by Charles Edward Mallows. The house reputedly cost £100,000. Craig-y-parc is a Grade II* listed building. The garden and park surrounding the house has its own Grade II* listing on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, is a designated conservation area and contains a number of listed structures. The house now operates as a residential school for children and young adults with disabilities.

References

1 2 3 4 Weaver, ,Lawrence (1913). Houses and Gardens by E.L. Lutyens. London: Country Life. pp. 103–116.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Historic England. "Little Thakeham (1027209)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 9 December 2015.
1 2 3 Gradidge, Roderick (1981). Edwin Lutyens: Architect Laureate. London: George Allen and Unwin. pp. 49–52. ISBN 0-04-720023-5.
1 2 3 Historic England. "Little Thakeham (1001214)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
1 2 Brown, Jane (1996). Lutyens and the Edwardians. London: Viking. pp. 77–83. ISBN 0-670-85871-4.
↑ "Little Thakeham". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
↑ Historic England. "Garden house (1391436)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 December 2015.

External links

50°55′49″N0°25′24″W / 50.93028°N 0.42333°W / 50.93028; -0.42333

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Weaver-1] 1 2 3 4 Weaver, ,Lawrence (1913). Houses and Gardens by E.L. Lutyens. London: Country Life. pp. 103–116.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[house-2] Historic England. "Little Thakeham (1027209)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 9 December 2015.

[Gradidge-3] 1 2 3 Gradidge, Roderick (1981). Edwin Lutyens: Architect Laureate. London: George Allen and Unwin. pp. 49–52. ISBN 0-04-720023-5.

[garden-4] 1 2 3 Historic England. "Little Thakeham (1001214)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 December 2015.

[Brown-5] 1 2 Brown, Jane (1996). Lutyens and the Edwardians. London: Viking. pp. 77–83. ISBN 0-670-85871-4.

[6] "Little Thakeham". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 9 July 2013.

[7] Historic England. "Garden house (1391436)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 December 2015.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]