Heatherwood South and Heatherwood West (Formerly Oaklawn), Crawley Down, West Sussex

Description

WORTH

1144/0/10078 SANDY LANE
16-JUN-09 Crawley Down
Heatherwood South and Heatherwood West
(formerly Oaklawn)

II
Large detached house, now subdivided. Built circa 1891 by the architect Thomas Maclaren for Mr THB Buckley in Arts and Crafts style. Subdivided in the late C20. The late C20 extension to the north east is not of special interest.

MATERIALS: Built of red brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings and tile-hanging, with some courses of fishscale tiles. Wooden brackets, balcony and rafter feet, which are exposed on the south east and north west sides. Tiled roof with external brick chimneystack to the south east and a ridge brick chimneystack to the north west. Windows are mainly wooden mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements with leaded lights to the transomes.

PLAN: An asymmetrical building of two storeys and attics. The principal rooms were arranged on the south west and south east sides with the service end to the north. The ground floor comprised a porch leading into an L-shaped staircase hall from which a drawing room led off at the south east corner with a dining room to the north of this and in the south western corner was a library and a business room, now amalgamated into a kitchen. The service end included a kitchen, scullery and pantry.

EXTERIOR: The south or entrance front has a large tile-hung attic gable supported on wooden brackets over the attic casement window. A first floor triple casement is placed asymmetrically over the main entrance, which has a deeply recessed four-centred stone arched porch with carved floral motif keystone and three lights to the fanlight. Behind is a three-panelled door with opaque leaded glass fanlight and sidelight. To the left is a mullioned and transomed casement above a three-light canted bay. To the right the gable is interrupted by a full height external brick chimneystack with small windows serving an internal inglenook fireplace and above a square stone sundial with bronze gnomon bearing the inscription "I COUNT NONE BUT SUNNY HOURS". The south east or garden elevation also has a large tile-hung gable with some courses of fishscale tiles and attic casement window. To the left is a two-storey canted bay with tiled roof. There is a plain central casement and the ground floor has a fixed casement with Chinese style glazing. To the right is a recessed wooden sleeping balcony with an arch with fretted spandrels, balcony with stick balusters and a canted bay below. To the north west is a projecting two-storey gabled section with an M-shaped roof, with tile-hanging to the top of the gables and a tall brick chimneystack set back behind. The attic has an original angled tile-hung dormer with nine-paned casement and a later C20 flat roofed dormer adjoining. The first floor has two mulliioned and transomed casements above a later C20 full width single-storey brick lean-to which replaced an earlier smaller lean-to. The ground floor has an angled bay window at the junction between the south west and south eastern elevations. The north west elevation has a gabled projection at the south end, followed by a two-storey canted bay which merges on the first floor into a mullioned and transomed casement. Below this is a panelled door, originally the tradesman's entrance. To the north of this is a first floor casement with a taller window below, replaced in the C20 but retaining the original decorated wooden blindbox below. This elevation terminates in a lower section with C20 casement and a later C20 brick gabled porch with plank door.

INTERIOR: The porch has a half-glazed panelled door which leads into the staircase hall which has a staircase with stick balusters set diagonally, with some turned balusters interspersed, and chamfered newel posts with ball finials. The first landing has a reading alcove and on the first floor is an unusual wooden screen, panelled to the base and with similar diagonally-placed stick balusters and turned balusters. Both staircase hall and drawing room retain the original oak floor with thin marquetry bands. A seven-panelled door with brass fingerboards opens into the drawing room which has a moulded cornice and an arched alcove in the south eastern corner cotaining a wooden fireplace with side panelling enclosing two angled wooden seats. An original fireplace is reported to survive in the dining room. The former library and business room have been converted into a kitchen.

HISTORY: This house was originally called Oaklawn and was the earliest notable independent commission of the architect Thomas Maclaren, built circa 1891 for Mr THB Buckley. Two perspectives of the house design were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1891.

Thomas Maclaren (1863-1928) was the youngest brother of the Scottish architect James Maclaren. At the age of sixteen he started an apprenticeship with the practice of Wallace and Flockhart. His first independent commission was a single-storey double cottage built in 1889 at the Grange, Crawley Down, Sussex on the estate of Mr JHW Buckley. Oaklawn was his next commission. In May 1892 he was admiitted as an Associate of the RIBA and in the same year designed a new vicarage in Horne, Surrey for the Reverend Ormsby Powell. His last commission in the British Isles was a housing scheme, Nos. 1-11 George Street Doune, Scotland built in 1894. However by this time he was suffering from tuberculosis, a disease from which his elder brother James had died in 1890, and in the winter of 1892-93 Thomas Maclaren left Britain to live permanently in Colorado, USA for health reasons. Here he became a successful architect, designing over 150 buildings, including private houses, churches and public buildings.

SOURCES:
Two 1891 architect's perspectives of Oaklawn exhibited at the Royal Academy.
Nairn and Pevsner "Buildings of England. Sussex." 1965 p.475.
Alan Calder "James Maclaren Arts and Crafts Pioneer." 2003.
Alan Calder "The James M MACLAREN SOCIETY JOURNAL", VOL 4, Summer 2007, pp.2-11.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
* Built in 1891 and originally called Oaklawn it is a carefully designed Arts and Crafts house which is asymmetrical and very three dimensional.
* It was the first major independent commission by the Scottish architect Thomas Maclaren (1863-1928) and the most interesting of his three English commissions before he emigrated to the USA.
* The building is almost intact on the principal elevations, the interior retains good quality joinery and the plan form of the principal rooms has been little altered.

Reasons for Listing

Heatherwood (comprising Heatherwood South and Heatherwood West) is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Built in 1891, when it was called Oaklawn, it was the first major independent commission by the Scottish architect Thomas Maclaren and the most interesting and original of his three English commissions. The main body of his work, over 150 commissions, was built in the USA.
* It is a carefully designed Arts and Crafts building, asymmetrical and very three dimensional, built of Sussex vernacular materials.
* Notable decoration includes a sundial, fretted sleeping balcony and Chinese inspired window to the outside and internally a staircase with reading alcove, drawing room with inglenook fireplace with built-in settles and original doors.
* The building is little altered, with only minor alterations to the two major elevations, and a mostly intact interior despite the property being subdivided.

External Links

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.