Summary
Game larder, built as a dairy, c1860, by Henry Clutton for Raikes Currie.
Reasons for Designation
The building known as the game larder, originally a dairy at Minley Manor, c1860 by Henry Clutton, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: though primarily a functional building, discretely positioned out of general view, it is carefully composed and detailed in the manner typical of a dairy which family members might also visit, the radial stone floor being testament to the attention to detail paid to the design of this ancillary building;
* Fixtures and fittings: the relief moulded plaster panels and stained glass additions to the building suggest a later ornamental rather than culinary use;
* Historic interest: the principal mansion, together with the other associated buildings and landscape illustrate the evolution of a mid-C19 to early C20 landed estate that comprises buildings by two significant and influential C19 architects, Clutton and Devey, and latterly Devey’s draughtsman Castings, laid out in collaboration with a major horticulturalist;
* Group value: Minley Manor exemplifies a landed estate set in a registered designed landscape, marked by a number of listed buildings of note which together form an exceptional and very complete group.
History
In 1855 the manor of Minley was bought by Raikes Currie (1801-1881), a wealthy banker and Liberal politician. He immediately commissioned Henry Clutton to build a country house on the site.
Clutton, 1819-1893, began his career under Edward Blore and toured Italy, France, Belgium and Germany before beginning his own practice in the mid-1840s. Supported by private means from the Walworth Estates, Clutton was able to pick and choose his commissions, and favoured churches, schools and private houses. He became a fellow of the RIBA, wrote for the Ecclesiological Society and published widely on the subject of French Renaissance architecture. His design for Minley (NHLE 1258061) was initially modelled on the chateau at Blois (Hunting 1983, 98) and was at the time one of the first C19 country houses to be built in England in French Renaissance manner, though under the influence of the English Gothic Revival. Typical of the period, Clutton rejected uniformity and symmetry, in favour of ordered but irregular elevations which, later augmented by Devey's alterations, were noted by Girouard for their ‘aggressive anarchy’. Clutton designed further buildings on the estate, including the Church of St Andrew (NHLE 1258200) and a number of lodges, before his eyesight failed and he ended his practice.
The building known as a game larder is likely to have been part of Clutton’s original scheme and was built as a dairy, although, like Church Lodge, it is treated in a different architectural style to the main house. Historic maps show that there were once two larders, the other of which was demolished, probably in the 1970s. Drawings from the late C19 refer to the building as a ‘dairy’, and show it with a thatched roof, and include plans to install an ice house beneath the building. A subterranean room remains extant. Dairies were frequently built as eyecatchers and ornamental features in a landscape, although the location of this example, which must have always been to the rear of the service range, suggests it was also functional. There appears to have been an attempt to improve the building, through the installation of stained glass windows and decorative plaster relief panels to the interior.
The entire Minley estate was sold to the army in 1936, and plans have the building marked as ‘fan room’ suggesting it was adapted for use for the ventilation of the main house.
Details
Game larder, originally a dairy, c1860, by Henry Clutton for Raikes Currie.
MATERIALS: red brick with stone dressings and a slate roof.
PLAN: it is situated on the north-east side of the manor house in a deliberately shaded spot. The game larder has an octagonal, single-cell plan with a basement reached by separate, external steps.
EXTERIOR: elevations are in red brick; four of the eight sides have a timber-framed sash window. Two sides have geometric stained glass panels inserted into the sash boxes. Two, opposing, sides have four-panelled timber doors. The roof is an octagonal pyramid which overhangs deeply, supported on timber posts at its corners. At the top is an octagonal ventilation cupola.
INTERIOR: walls are rendered with a low band of C20 tiling. Above the doors are inserted decorative plaster panels depicting scenes of horsemanship. The floor has a central circular slab and a sandstone border, and is divided radially into eight sections covered in black and buff ceramic tiles. The cupola is lined in timber and has a cross beam, possibly used for suspending game.
