Details
GODALMING ASHSTEAD LANE
SU 9642 SE
(south side, off)
17/4
Ladywell Convent
GV
II
House, now convent. 1910 by Sir Guy Dawber for Major-General D A Scott; con-
verted to convent 1956; additions 1960s by G Clay and partners. Bargate rubble-
stone with red-brick dressings; plain tile roof. U-shaped plan open at front.
7-bay spine range, of 1 storey with attic at front, 2 storeys at rear, having
central 2-storey porch and 2-storey stair towers in angles with wings which
project from end bays. Right wing is of 1 storey with attic, 2 bays; left wing
of 2 storeys with attic, 3 bays, with 4th, single-storey, bay, and 10-bay 1960s
wing extension. Projecting to left from left end of main range is 1960s wing
extension. Projecting to rear right corner is 1960s U-shaped cloister, open at
front, with chapel in spine range; from its right projects another wing, not of
special interest. In Jacobean style, having double-chamfered mullion windows
with king-mullions, leaded lights and dripmoulds; brick eaves bands, the towers
with modillions; wooden gutters and downpipes; metalled ball finials; tall
chimneys with ribs and cornices. Entrance front: porch: studded wooden door of
4 raised and moulded panels with large iron knocker having inner wood architrave
with brattished top, heavily-moulded brick outer architrave with pilaster-
corbels supporting cornice, and segmental pediment broken by swagged cartouche
surmounted by a deer; pedimented 2-light window over door; crow-stepped gable;
1-light windows to returns. Flanking porch are 8-light windows and 3-light
dormers under swept hipped roofs. Towers have 2-light windows, right tower with
double-transomed stair window to front and single-transomed window to left
return; left tower with 3-light window to ground floor, front. A cross-ridge
stack to main range behind each tower. Right wing: 6-light window with tran-
somed 4-light window above to gable end; 2-light window and 2-light dormer to
left return. Left wing, from left: single-storey end bay with 4-light window
and pyramidal roof; 4-light window to each floor; 2-light window to ground
floor, 1st floor blind and rising into gable with 2-light attic window; 2-light
window with 4-light window over and 2-light dormer. External triple-flued stack
at left end; 1960s wing extension, set back, in same style with near-central
tower. 1960s cloisters in similar style, the chapel tall with tall window,
crow-stepped gable and octagonal, tile-hung, clock and bell-tower. Garden front
(rear): symmetrical, having central external stack with dated 1st floor sundial
with inscribed stone plaque beneath, and tripled diagonally-set flues; flanking
4-light windows, transomed on ground floor; next bays gabled with windows of 6
lights to ground floor, 4 lights above, all transomed, left bay with cross-
window to inner return, right bay with arched doorway; outer bays have windows
of 3 transomed lights to ground floor and 4 lights above, ground floor of left
bay masked by cloister addition. Set back on right are 2 further bays having
windows of 4 and 2 lights to ground floor and 4 lights above; further right is
1960s wing extension, in keeping. Interior: principal rooms face onto the
garden, with corridor along front. Contemporary interiors survive including:
tiled fireplaces, some with decorative surrounds; panelled central ground-floor
room with large scantling, elaborately stopped beams, and double-doors into
rooms at either end which have barrel-vaulted ceilings with plastered, leaf-
decorated ribs; former billiard room in right wing has strawberry-decorated
ceiling frieze and large embrasure flanked by panelled pilasters with obelisk
finials; main stair has moulded, square-section balusters, and finials to
newels; 1st floor rooms retain tiled fireplaces and tiled fireplaces and tiled
window sills. The house was originally called Tensley Court. C Aslett, The
Last Country Houses.
Listing NGR: SU9671542348