Ladywell Convent

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

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

291273

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Aslet, C, The Last Country House, (1982)

End of official list entry

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