Description

COLCHESTER

TL 92 NE LEXDEN ROAD
584/16/10023 127
10-MAY-00 Lexden Grange (Colchester District
Planning Office)

II

Large house, later Planning Office. Built in 1904, (dated rainwaterhead on west elevation) for a client with the initial H, architect Robert Beaumont, extended to the rear in matching style c1920 and with some minor later C20 alterations. The external and internal detailing may have been carried out by Arthur Robert Turrell Clarke an architect in the firm. Vernacular Revival style. Built mainly of red brick but with gables with moulded brickwork, tilehanging and timber-framing with plaster infill, tiled roofs with 7 tall clustered brick chimneystacks. Roughly L-shaped plan of two storeys and attics with irregular fenestration of wooden framed mullioned or mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights and some stained glass.
EXTERIOR: South east or entrance front has large tile-hung gable to south front with single casement to gable, two storey 7-light splayed bay through ground and first floors to right and corner doorcase to left. East front has elaborate brick external chimneystack and splayed bay to ground floor with two brick gables to north, the southernmost having a projecting timberframed gable with two quatrefoil motifs above continuous window and vertical struts with ogee bracing below and ground floor timberframed porch with leaded light windows, herringbone brick infill below, brick plinth and wooden seat . The northern gable has moulded brickwork and 3 tier 7-light staircase window to first floor with stained glass. South east front has two storey curved 8-light window with 3-light dormer above and this front ends with a two bay section, the ground floor red brick with two round-headed windows to ground floor and 5-light window in eastern elevation and timberframed first floor with left side 2-light casement, right side projecting bay under gable with quatrefoil and 3-light casement to east elevation. Plainer north east elevation. West elevation has 7 windows. Central and end moulded brick gables with two storey bays with 10-light curved bays with mullioned windows to first floor and mullioned and transomed windows to ground floor. Between these gables are two linking blocks each having two timberframed gables on the first floor with quatrefoil motifs, 4-light bays and ogee bracing. Southernmost timberframed section has round-headed door with similar sidelight to left and curved bay to right with mullioned and transomed casements with star-shaped leaded lights. Northernmost timber-framed section is similar on the first floor but ground floor has two bay late C20 extension with 4-light mullioned and trasnsomed casements.
INTERIOR: Staircase hall has ogee-headed screen, oak staircase with turned balusters, plank and muntin panelling and gallery at top. Other features include plastered ceilings with strapwork motifs, wooden cupboard with initials WCH and FRH, stone four-centred fireplace with Tudor rose carvings to spandrels and the initial H with eleborate linenfold panelling above, fireplace with pilasters, large wooden fireplace with swag decoration now converted into a storage area and ribbed ceilings with plastered floral decoration to the rear wing.

Listing NGR: TL9786225141

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26660503

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)