White Hart Lodge and West House, Limpsfield, Surrey

Summary

White Hart Lodge is a house of probable C15 origin, with multiple subsequent phases including C19 and c1900 additions. West House was created from the larger part of the c1900 addition.

The late-C20 garages belonging to White Hart Lodge and West House are not included in the listed building.
*Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the conservatory to the rear of West House, and the interior of West House, is not of special architectural or historic interest.

Description

White Hart Lodge is a house of probable C15 origin, with multiple subsequent phases, including C19 and c1900 additions. West House originally formed part of White Hart Lodge and comprises the larger part of the c1900 addition.

MATERIALS: the early phases of the house have a timber-framed core, and the later phases are masonry at ground floor, with timber framing above. Both White Hart Lodge and West House are faced in white-painted roughcast and hung tiles, the c1900 work having red brick dressings around window and door openings. The roofs are covered with clay tiles and the windows are timber casements and sliding sashes.

PLAN: the building is two storeys high, the c1900 phase also having an attic and basement level. The early phases of the building, comprising a C15 hall range and a later C16 cross wing, form an L-shaped plan. The hall range runs north-south, parallel to Limpsfield High Street, with the cross wing adjoining the south end of the hall range, and running east-west away from the road. There is a large stack inserted at the junction between the two ranges, and a smaller stack at each of the opposing ends.

The later building phases comprise an infill within the right-angle of the ‘L’, of probable C19 date, and further to the west a large extension of c1900. Internally the infill phase forms (probably as a result of later remodelling) a large double-height pseudo-medieval 'great hall', with galleried landing above, and a large open-well stair. To the west of this is the c1900 addition, now forming part of White Hart Lodge, and all of West House. The division between White Hart Lodge and West House is not identifiable in the complex roofscape of the additions.

Both houses are entered from the east: White Hart Lodge through the left bay of the hall range, and West House into the c1900 extension, set further back into the site.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation of White Hart Lodge faces east onto the High Street. The hall range is roughcast over a rendered plinth, and presents externally as having two bays: the front door to the left, and a canted bay to the right at ground floor, both with first floor sash windows, and roof dormers above. The six-panel front door, with side lights and a deep semi-circular half-dome hood on moulded brackets, is an early C20 arrangement. To the left of the hall range is the gable end of the cross wing, with another canted bay at ground floor, and a casement above set within the tile-hung first floor.

The north, south and west elevations, variously shared between White Hart Lodge and West House, each form an irregular arrangement, unified by a shared palette of roughcast and first-floor hung tiles; multi-pane casement and sash windows; and red brick chimneys with moulded stepped heads. The c1900 extension includes a moulded brick band beneath the tile hanging and finely pointed rubbed brick arches over the window heads. A distinguishing feature of the north elevation is the tall, leaded, four-light mullion and transom hall window which lights the open hall and stair of White Hart Lodge. On the west elevation, at the rear of West House, is a late C20 timber conservatory* which is excluded from the listing, and a single-storey extension which matches the detail of the rest of the house.

INTERIOR: the interior of the early phases of White Hart Lodge has been largely modernised, and there are few pre-C20 features exposed. The main exception to this is the first floor room to the east of the cross wing. This room is open to the rafter collars, with the wall and roof structure partially exposed. The room is spanned by a substantial cambered tie beam, supporting a crown post - cruciform in section, with four curved up-braces. The end wall to the east, and the dividing wall between the east and west rooms, both have crown posts with curved up-braces supporting the collar purlin, large curved down-braces, and plastered infill panels. On the north wall, where the wing adjoins the hall range, is a fireplace with a stone surround with a four-centred arch opening. A door to the right of the fireplace leads into the hall range, and there is evidence in the wall framing of a now-blocked second door, to the left of the fireplace. The west room of the cross-wing is ceiled over, and within the loft space above there is another crown post - square in section, with two curved up-braces supporting the collar purlin.

In the attic space, above the first floor rooms of the hall range, the upper part of another crown post is visible a short distance to the north of the inserted stack. This post is octagonal in section, with a moulded capital, and the up-braces are straight and steeply raked. There were originally four braces, but one is now missing. The roof structure has undergone alteration, but many heavily smoke-blackened timbers are visible.

Now interconnecting through large openings in the back wall of the hall range, is the double-height 'great hall' and stair in the later infill. This hall is overlooked by a three-sided galleried landing with heavily moulded balustrade, reached by the wide dog-leg stair, lined with fielded panelling. The hall ceiling imitates a crown post roof structure, open to the underside of the collars; it is unclear how much of the exposed timber is genuinely structural.

The interior of West House* is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing.

History

The core of White Hart Lodge is of probable C15 date and, as with many buildings of this early date, its subsequent evolution is complex and multi-layered. The building was at one stage an inn, known as the White Hart Inn. In 'Limpsfield Explored, A Guide to the Village and Conservation Area' local historian Kay Percy states that it was known by this name from the C16, although no source is cited for this claim. The date at which it returned to full residential use is uncertain, but map evidence suggests this was prior to the mid-1880s, and c1900 it would seem to have undergone a notable phase of extension and remodelling.

The fabric of what is now White Hart Lodge and West House appears to be of four broad phases. The original C15 house included an open hall, with crown-post roof, and central hearth; the latter evidenced in the smoke-blackened roof timbers. A cross wing at the south end would seem to be a later addition, possibly of C16 date, and possibly contemporaneous with the insertion of a large stack at the south end of the hall and the flooring over of the hall.

The earliest Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1884 shows that at this date the house extended further to the north of its current footprint, and the area between the C15 and C16 ranges had been in-filled, as it is now. Without further map regression the date of this in-filling is indeterminate, and what stands there currently may not be its first incarnation, nevertheless it represents a third broad phase. By 1912 the OS map shows the building largely with its current footprint: with the curtailment of the building to the north, and the addition of a large interlocking extension to the west, most of which now forms West House, and represents the fourth phase of c1900. Also during this early C20 period, the earlier parts of the building underwent a level of remodelling, with the addition of features such as the canopied front door, probably the decorative fire surrounds, and the internal re-fashioning of the earlier infill to create the grand stair and open hall which exists today. West House was created from the bulk of the c1900 extension of White Hart Lodge at some point in the second half of the C20.

Reasons for Listing

White Hart Lodge and West House, a timber-framed house of probable C15 origin, with later alterations and additions (now divided into two houses), is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: as an example of high-status vernacular construction, demonstrative of the materials, techniques and craftsmanship of an open hall house and its subsequent evolution;
* Historic interest: the building’s fabric is indicative of the changing patterns of occupation, building technology, and domestic fashion from the C15 to the C20.

External Links

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