Farmhouse at Newland Court, Newland, Worcestershire

Summary

A farmhouse, dating from around 1801 and incorporating an earlier dwelling. Mid- and late-C19 additions and refurbishment; minor later C20 alterations.

Description

A farmhouse, dating from around 1801 and incorporating an earlier dwelling. Mid- and late-C19 additions and refurbishment; minor later C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: it is constructed of red brick in an English garden wall bond under slate and plain tiled roofs with brick stacks.

PLAN: the farmhouse has a single-depth range to the front, orientated north-east to south-west, with two principal ground-floor rooms and an entrance hall onto a rear stair hall in a projecting bay. To the rear are two lower, parallel wings of the early and mid-C19. At the south end of the front range is a late-C19 addition and a south-east wing, originally a farm building, that breaks forwards.

EXTERIOR: the front range is of three storeys with a small cellar; the rear wings and south-east wing are of two storeys. The principal, south-east facing elevation has four sash windows to each floor; sixteen-pane ground-floor sashes, twelve-pane first-floor sashes and nine-pane attic-floor sashes, all with glazing bars and stone sills. There are cambered brick voussoirs to those on the lower two floors. The ground-floor windows to bays one and two do not align with those on the upper floors, being disposed a little to allow for the entrance which straddles bays one and two; the window to bay one is also lower than the rest. The door is early C19 with four sunken upper panels, a flush lower half and a cambered head; the open timber porch is late C19. The north-east gable end has no openings; the wing to the right has two- and three-light casements, one with leaded panes, under cambered heads at ground floor, and a sixteen-pane sash and a window of one light to the first floor. To the rear, the wing to the left has a ground-floor camber-arched window (boarded over, 2019) and a first-floor sash. To the right, the adjoining, earlier wing has an external stack and a ground-floor window (boarded); its right return has a ground-floor window (boarded) under a cambered head and an entrance with early-C19 plank door and leaded, rectangular fanlight, and a square-headed, two-light timber casement of two glazing bars to the first floor; a lean-to canopy roof supported on metal uprights has been added. The rear elevation of the front range and also the earlier of the rear wings have eaves cornices of header bricks. The stair bay projects out and has a two-light casement (partly obscured by late-C19 extension) with leaded panes between the ground and first floors, and a casement at attic level. The adjacent late-C19 extension wraps around the south-west end of the front range and has casement windows and an entrance. The south-east wing, formerly a farm building, has a dentilled eaves cornice to its north and south elevations. The north elevation has a small timber first-floor window and an external stack, the south-west gabled end has sixteen-pane sashes to the ground and first floors and to the north-east elevation is a ground-floor sash window and a first-floor, three-light casement.

INTERIOR: there is evidence that the internal ground- and first-floor circulation was reconfigured sometime in the first half of the C19 when a spine corridor was created within the rear wings, parallel with the rear wall of the front range; this was probably to separate the family from the servants. Further changes to the circulation occurred in the late C19 when the south-east wing was brought into the house. The interior retains many features. Early-C19 joinery includes panelled doors and plank doors, some with strap hinges; skirting boards and a closed-string staircase with twisted-section balusters, octagonal newels with flat octagonal caps and moulded handrail. Some doors are mid- and late-C19 replacements. The wooden fireplace surround in the entrance hall is mid-C19; those in the drawing room and the snug have simple fire surrounds of marble and timber respectively, both with tiled splayed sides, and late-C19 date. The fittings in the ground-floor of the south-east wing include recessed shelving; panelled window reveals and shutters, and a wooden fire surround with bracketed mantle shelf; all are late C19. The earlier of the two rear wings has a large fireplace (blocked) with a cambered-arched surround with mouldings below the mantle and a back staircase which has stick balusters at first-floor level. The ground floor of the adjoining later wing, possibly formerly a dairy, is unheated and has a flagged floor, shelves of brick and slate and high shuttered windows. The front range has Arts and Crafts-style Edwardian fire surrounds in three of the first-floor bedrooms and a mid-C19 fireplace in the other room. The main staircase continues up to the attic, though its upper section has stick balusters and a plain handrail. There are four bedrooms; only the rooms at either end are heated and have timber fire surrounds with simple mouldings and hob grates. There are plank doors with strap finishes and plain skirting doors. Roof not inspected (2019)

History

Newland Court is situated on the A449 Worcester Road, approximately halfway between Malvern and Worcester. Historically it was a mixed farm which included the growing and drying of hops from at least the second half of the C19. The house dates principally to the first decade of the C19, though it incorporates an earlier building which probably had a two-room plan; one of its rooms heated by the large external stack at the centre of the present house. A three-storey, single-depth range was constructed around the earlier structure in around 1802 together with a contemporary two-storey rear wing; a second rear wing was added by the mid-C19.

The Newland Tithe Map of 1842 shows Newland Court as an L-shaped house with farm buildings mainly to the north-west and south-west in loose courtyard arrangements; the house and the farm are depicted with separate driveways from the road. The accompanying tithe apportionment records the owner as John Winnall of Brace’s Leigh, and that the house was leased to Captain William Candler, a naval officer and Master of the Worcestershire Hunt, who lived there from around 1836. The farm buildings were occupied by John Winnall.

In about 1850 Newland Court became part of the Madresfield estate. By 1853 it was the home of Henry Lakin, steward to Henry Lygon, 4th Earl Beauchamp. The Lygon family owned extensive lands in the area and had a great influence on the pattern of the landscape and its people. The Right Honourable Frederick, 6th Earl Beauchamp (1830-1891), inherited the estate in 1866 after his unmarried, older brother, the 5th Earl, died at the age of 37. One of his first tasks was to complete the reconstruction of Madresfield Court that had been started by his brother. Improvements were also undertaken elsewhere on the estate. In 1870-1871 the house at Newland Court was aggrandised. Around the same time one of the farm buildings was incorporated into the house to provide additional domestic accommodation (south-east wing), and an extension was added at the south end of the front range to link the two. New farm buildings were also built; existing ones were repaired, and some were adapted for other agricultural uses. Parts of the Madresfield estate, including Newland Court, were sold in 1919. It was purchased by the Jenkins family in 1927, and remains in the ownership of members of this family to the present day.

Reasons for Listing

The farmhouse at Newland Court, an early-C19 building with later C19 additions and alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is an externally well-preserved example of a classically-inspired vernacular brick building principally of the early C19;
* it retains good evidence for its historical development, and internally the functions and hierarchy of spaces remain clearly legible;
* it has a set of distinct, good-quality reception rooms and service areas, and retains a good proportion of historic fittings of different periods.

Historic interest:

* the building illustrates well how it was adapted to meet changing aspects of privacy, living standards and expectations over time.

External Links

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