Flowers Court and Associated Buildings, Pangbourne, West Berkshire

Description

PANGBOURNE

278/0/10012 Flowers Court and associated buildings
05-MAR-08

GV II
House, former farmhouse, late C16 or early C17 in origins with C18, C19 and C20 alterations and additions.

MATERIALS: Largely red brick with blue bricks to east elevation. Timber framing, tile roofs, some flint rubble.

PLAN: Broadly rectangular, originally a two cell lobby-entry plan dwelling which has been extended to the west and to the north.

EXTERIOR: Principal elevation to east in blue brick with red brick 'treillage' decoration and quoins. Three storeys with the third attic storey accommodation within the half-hipped tile roof, lit by roof dormers. The dormers do not align with the bays below. Off-centre main chimney stack with additional later stacks to south and north. The façade is asymmetrical of broadly six bays: to the south are two pairs of bays with large and handsome leaded cross windows to ground and first floor. Those at ground floor level have shallow brick arches. These flank a further bay with a Georgian style doorcase. This has Doric style columns with elongated capitals supporting a moulded cornice with dentil decoration. The door is panelled with a plain overlight. Further bay with same windows to north and projecting modern kitchen extension to its north. The Rear (west elevation) onto small courtyard is dominated by cat-slide roof and projecting gabled stair tower. This is half-timbered with a large leaded stair window. The first floor is lit by gabled roof dormers and the second by flat rood dormers. There is a single storey gabled extension to the north with an adjoining tall chimney stack. The base of this elevation is in flint rubble. There is a stepped end stack to the south elevation and the same to the north, although the latter elevation is now partly hidden by the modern porch and kitchen extensions. The kitchen extension was added to the north in the late C20/early C21 and is not of special interest.

INTERIOR: Original plan is evident internally; comprising two ground floor rooms, now the sitting and drawing room, divided by a shared central chimney stack. The west wall of these rooms is the original outer wall of the early house. Drawing room inglenook fireplace is original and is of late C16-early C17 date with chamfered overmantle and uprights. Sitting room fireplace is a much later addition in a Georgian style and the panelling also appears to be reproduction. To the west there is further service accommodation in the outshot in the C18. C18 kitchen, now present dining room, with tile floors, timber framing and door to former apple store above within roof space (now bathroom). Bread-oven and chimney were added to west in late C19. There is an impressive north door with highly decorative hinges and lock (upside down) probably of ecclesiastical origin and added as part of the late C19 aggrandisement. Open-well staircase and stair tower also late C19 addition in a historicist style with re-used panelling of possible C17 date at ground floor level. Banister and newel posts are late additions. Door and window furniture throughout is of good quality: ironmongery is largely late C19-early C20 in Arts & Crafts style. Good plank and panelled interior doors and a number of C18 moulded and pegged door frames, particularly on the upper floors. Single room cellar to south with brick floor.

HISTORY: Flowers Court was known as Flowers Farm as recently as the early C20 and the property has undergone a number of changes over its lifetime. The earliest house here, on architectural evidence, was built in the late C16 or early C17. This was a simple rectangular property of lobby-entry plan with a room either side of a central chimney stack. The property was subject to modifications in the C18 which improved and expanded the service areas in the west and north of the house. The roof was extended on the west into a cat-slide and further accommodation including a kitchen (now the dining room) was provided in the outshot under the cat-slide roof. Prior to this cooking would have taken place over a fireplace. The buttery and granary were added at the same time, forming a small service yard to the west of the house. The Pangbourne tithe map of 1841 shows this configuration with the rectangular house and two outbuildings to its west (which appear from the footprints and orientation to be the buttery and granary). Further buildings, including a range of barns around a farmyard, are also shown to the north. Details of the holdings on the associated tithe award indicate that the farm was then owned by the Reverend George Hulme and was occupied by one Charles West.
Further alterations in the late C19 served to improve and aggrandise the property including the addition of the Queen Anne style east garden front and a stair tower to the rear. A bread oven and chimney was also added to the west of the kitchen. These additions are dated by examination of the early Ordnance Survey maps. In the early C20 further minor improvements were made including landscaping of the yard and terrace. Limited alterations have occurred since the early C20 although a kitchen extension was added to the north in the late C20/early C21 (not of special interest).

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: GRANARY to west of Flowers Court, C18, rectangular on plan. It is a single storey rectangular structure with red brick plinth (possibly a later addition) supporting weatherboarded walls beneath a hipped tile roof. Single broad plank door in the east elevation approached by brick steps. The interior is a single space with queen-post roof with exposed rafters and purlins. Timber framed triple-light window at high level to the rear (west).
BUTTERY to west of Flowers Court, C18, L-shaped bi-partite on plan. Western narrower part of the building is brick built with a pitched tile roof. Door and window opening above in the west gable end which has been modified. Main buttery to the east is also brick built but broader north-south, this time with a hipped tiled roof. Open to the south (oddly for a building that would have needed to be kept cool) with the roof supported on wooden piers. Diamond-leaded two-light casement window to the east. Internally it has brick benches with tile slabs for butter making surviving against the north and east wall.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The house is of interest in that its architecture and plan-form details its development from simple vernacular to country house, particularly so is how the aggrandisement was affected by the need to work around the existing property. Although there have been minor modern alterations these have not had a detrimental impact on the historic fabric and there are good quality materials and surviving internal features, fixtures and fittings, including a fine original inglenook fireplace with chamfered surround and good quality interior doors and door and window furniture throughout. Flowers Court is of special interest as a late C16 to early C17 vernacular house with later but equally interesting campaigns of alteration and extension. The adjoining granary and buttery were constructed to form part of the service accommodation for Flowers Court and form a significant group with the main house. The C20 additions are not of special interest.

SOURCES: P S Barnwell & C Giles, English Farmsteads 1750-1914, (1997, RCHME); Pangbourne Tithe Map and Award, 1841, Berkshire Record Office D/D1/91.

Reasons for Listing

Flowers Court, formerly Flowers Farm is a late C16 to early C17 vernacular house of lobby-entry plan which was subsequently extended in the C18 to provide additional service accommodation, including a kitchen, to the north and west. In the late C19 it was the subject of aggrandisement with the addition of a Queen Anne style principal east front and a dramatic half-timbered stair tower. The house is of interest in that its architecture and plan-form details this development from simple vernacular dwelling to country house, particularly how the aggrandisement was influenced by the pre-existing property. Although there have been minor modern alterations these have not had a detrimental impact on the historic fabric and there are good quality materials and surviving internal features, fixtures and fittings including a fine original inglenook fireplace with chamfered surround and good quality interior doors and door and window furniture throughout. Flowers Court is therefore of special interest as a late C16 to early C17 vernacular house with later but equally interesting campaigns of alteration and extension and merits listing at Grade II.

External Links

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