The Knoll with attached Stables

Summary

A house with an attached stable range built in a Jacobean style in the Arts & Crafts tradition by William Bidlake in 1907, for WH Winterton, with interior plasterwork by George Bankart.

Reasons for Designation

The Knoll with attached Stables, of 1907 by William Bidlake, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the exceptional quality of Bidlake's design for the house, with remarkable attention to detail and design planning internally and externally;
* for the quality of its internal plasterwork;
* for its degree of survival, with key features surviving throughout.

Historic interest:

* as one of Bidlake's most important commissions, and for the additional association with George Bankart.

History

The Knoll was built in 1907 for WH Winterton, a local businessman who owned the Gypsy Lane Brick Company, to designs by William Bidlake. Winterton's brother Frank was married to one of Bidlake's sisters, and his sister was married to GP Bankart who produced the internal plasterwork for the house. The Tudor style bricks for the building were produced at Winterton's own brickworks. The Knoll was built in Oadby, south-east of Leicester, in an area that was largely rural at the end of the C19, but in the early-C20 was being developed with large houses such as this.

The Knoll was one of Bidlake's largest domestic commissions and his only work in Leicestershire. His output is largely found in domestic houses and churches in Birmingham and the West Midlands, where he took inspiration from the vernacular architecture of the region. Some of Bidlake's early-C20 commissions feature in Hermann Muthesius's 'Das Englische Haus', a study of the Domestic Revival architecture in England at this time. Some of Bidlake's notable output was at the Four Oaks Estate in Sutton Coldfield, where some of the land had been purchased for development by Frank Winterton.

George Percy Bankart was a Leicestershire-born plasterwork and lead-casting specialist who had worked with Ernest Gimson before becoming head of plasterwork at the Bromsgrove Guild of Handicraft. Bankart re-edited a volume of William Millar's 'Plastering: Plain & Decorative' in which he included an image of some of his work at The Knoll. It is possible that the Bromsgrove Guild were also responsible for some of the other decorative work at The Knoll.

The Knoll was later sold to Eric S Fox of Fox's Glacier Mints, before being sold in 1964 to the University of Leicester for use as student accommodation. The building now stands in the University's Botanic Garden, which had moved to this site in 1947 and comprises of four large houses and their gardens. The Knoll was the last of the houses to be bought.

Details

House with stables and coach house of 1907 by William Bidlake for WH Winterton, with interior plasterwork by George Bankart.

MATERIALS: the house is brick with stone dressings under a Swithland slate roof.

PLAN: the principal range of the house runs roughly east-west with the entrance front to the north; the stables and coach house range is at the eastern end projecting at a right angle to the north.

EXTERIOR: the house is designed in a Jacobean style with Arts and Crafts influences. Windows generally have stone mullions and transoms and small leaded casements. There are tall groups of chimneys across the roofscape.

The entrance front to the north is irregular with a projecting central gable which houses the door in a wide, four-centred arch with oriel window above. There is strapwork decoration and obelisks to either side and iron door furniture. The right hand bay has a tall chimney with small windows in the returns. Left of the door is a projecting flat-roofed section with embattled parapet and a large window at first floor level expressing the stair within. Recessed behind the flat roof are two small gables. Further gables project beyond this with a smaller door to the service areas of the house and the stable range projecting.

The side elevation to the west expresses the sloping site with a full-height canted bay raised on an open loggia with Doric columns at basement level, all framed by a gable with finials.

The garden front to the south is mostly symmetrical with the principal block of five varied bays. The central bay is recessed with a door at ground floor level and attic window in the gabled apex above, but is otherwise blank. The other bays step out beyond this; large windows to either side light the hall, and there are then projecting gabled bays. That to the left has a double-height canted bay, to the right it is a double-height squared bay.

There is a small recessed bay with a narrow gable to the left and a lower service range to the right.

Beyond the service range there are two parallel stable and coach house ranges which project to the north. The western range has a large archway from the entrance drive with stables beyond. The courtyard side of the arch has a shingled gable. There is a tall, gabled section with some diaper pattern brickwork to the drive side and dovecote to the courtyard side with a taking-in door below, and two stables or loose boxes.

The eastern range has two gabled bays, also with shingles, containing the coach house with wide doors. There is a further gable beyond this and another small courtyard off the service areas of the house.

INTERIOR: the main entrance opens into a small lobby which gives access to the main hall beyond. The walls of the hall are lined with timber panelling and the ceiling has chamfered beams; there is a large inglenook fireplace with carved overmantel and a stone surround with repousse work copper hood and Delft tiles within. The bay windows either side of the garden door have plasterwork ceilings, and above the door to the adjacent drawing room there is a plaster frieze depicting dancing figures.

The drawing room has a Jacobean style plasterwork ceiling, timber panelling and a further inglenook fireplace. The morning room and dining room are also panelled with plasterwork decoration; that in the dining room being vine scroll. The dining room also retains inbuilt shelving and cupboards. Beyond the dining room is the service area of the house which contained the kitchen and other ancillary rooms.

From the hall the main stair winds around the back of the fireplace and has a balustrade of thick timber posts and newels with finials. The first-floor corridors are groin vaulted with further panelling and give access to the bedrooms which generally have plain cornicing and some surviving fireplaces. Some bathrooms retain tiling, including one in the Art Deco style.

Attic rooms above have some further surviving fireplaces.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

187551

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Ballard, P, Birmingham's Victorian and Edwardian Architects, (2009), 367-401
Millar, W, Bankart, G, Plastering Plain and Decorative, (1927)

Websites
Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Architects 1800-1950: Bidlake, William Henry 1861-1938, accessed 04.12.2024 from https://architecture.arthistoryresearch.net/architects/bidlake-william-henry
Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Architects 1800-1950: Bankart, George Percy 1866-1929, accessed 04.12.2024 from https://architecture.arthistoryresearch.net/architects/bankart-george-percy

End of official list entry

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