History

The house was built in 1913-4 (dated 1914) for R C Talbot Leybourne and was designed by A T Bolton. It was unfinished at the outbreak of WWI and was never completed to the full design, a picture of which remains in the house. It appears to have been externally unaltered since.

Exterior

Neo-Jacobean/Arts-and-Crafts style country house. Built of rock faced red sandstone rubble with carefully squared quoins and other dressings, some red sandstone ashlar dressings to important openings, roughcast render to the service wing, Welsh slate roofs with iron staining, stone stacks. Main range of half-H plan with short wings projecting on the garden side; off-set entrance on the courtyard side with large service wing projecting to the left, this is joined to an L-shaped block round the stable court which contains both stables and garages. Two storeys and attics to main range and service wing, additional two storey wing; stables court is single storey and attic.
Entrance front: The main range has an off centre entrance with a windowed bay on the left and a blind bay on the right. The entrance is in a 3-sided tower with the 3-centred arch doorway canted to the right, three paired mullioned windows in the floor above, small slated gable behind parapet. The ground floor and the windows above have surrounds of red sandstone ashlar. There is a 4-light timber mullioned window to each floor on the left, the lower one has a tiled voussoir head, the upper one is close under the eaves. To the right, in the angle between the porch and the wing is a tall stack which houses a small rectangular window on either floor, probably for cloakrooms. Blind walling to right with handsome lead downpipe with hopper head. Very steeply pitched roof.
The right return gable has a French casement with sidelights and overlight to the right and a small 2-light casement to the left, both with tiled heads. The first floor has a 7-light window with the centre three lights projecting forwards as a canted oriel supported on carved timber brackets. The whole attic gable projects on four heavy carved brackets which carry a bressumer with a bell-cast slate-hung gable above with a small 2-light casement in the lower part.
The garden front has a small projecting gable on the left and a larger one on the right with the hall between to give the impression of hall-and-cross-wings. The left gable has a 7-light mullion-and-transom window on the ground floor and a mullioned one above with slate-hung cloak between and in the gable above. The windows are wrap around bays in the manner that became so popular in speculative housing of the 1920s. Small 2-light casement in bargeboarded gable. The centre section has the garden door on the left and the 2-storeyed hall window to the right. This is a projecting bay with 4-lights with king mullion and three transoms, two additional lights to the sides, embossed lead panelled head. The upper wall to the left of this is entirely hidden by wisteria. Central 3-light gabled dormer with tall stack to left. The larger wing to the right reproduces the idea of the Hall bay but has blind panels between 4-light mullion-and-transom windows with king mullions, panelled head as before, 3-light casement in the gable above and stack on the ridge behind. The end of the wing has the wrap around windows first used by J Burnet and C R Macintosh, and later greatly used in the garden suburbs.
There is a further gabled wing behind with a 3-light casement on the upper floor but this was not properly seen at resurvey (August 2005). It runs through to the entrance front where it joins the stable wing, wrap around corner window on the first floor, plain casement below.
The main service wing looks onto the entrance court and has a 7-light timber mullioned window below and two 3-light ones above. Three light gabled dormer and large stack in the steeply sloping roof. The gable end of the wing has two 2-light casements on either floor and a 3-light one in the attic.
The stable range has four bays with doors and 2-light windows; the third bay has a two storey projecting entrance with hayloft above with pulley beam in gabled housing and taking-in door. Three gabled ventilators in the roof. The garage returns at right angles with double doors and a gabled dormer above. The rear of these sections were not seen.

Interior

Only the central Hall and the Panelled Room at the south end of the range were seen at resurvey. The Hall is two storeyed with an open flying timber staircase with shaped cut-out balusters facing the 2-storeyed bay window. Internal oriel to one of the bedrooms. The panelled room has a pseudo-inglenook fireplace and some mixed panelling some of which is said to have come from another house.

Reasons for Listing

Included as fine, imaginatively designed and very little altered Arts-and Crafts style house.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29507663

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

• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)