Details
SU 42 SE
2/98
EASTLEIGH
ALLBROOK HILL
Allbrook Farmhouse
14.8.53
II
Former farmhouse, later house. Built in 1659, the south elevation refronted and refenestrated in the early to mid C19 with two storey porch added by 1892. Refurbishment in the 1930s included the insertion of brick herringbone nogging and some windows to the outshot.
MATERIALS: timber framed with 1930s herringbone brick infilling but flemish bond brickwork to south front. C20 tiled roof with nearly central brick chimneystack.
PLAN: a three bay lobby entrance house with slightly longer east end and service rooms in the north outshot.
EXTERIOR: the south, or entrance, front is of brick with mid C19 cast iron casements with a mixture of diamond and hexagonal-shaped panes. Nearly central two storey gabled projecting porch of brick to the ground floor with two-centred arched entrance, hung with alternate courses of curved and pointed tiles above. The original oak front door, carved with hearts and the date 1659, was stolen several years ago. The east and west sides have exposed box-frame timber framing with midrail and diagonal tension braces and herringbone brick nogging on a brick plinth. The original window openings survive without glazing and only the attic window on the east side retains some wooden mullions. The gables have plain wooden bargeboards and tile-hung tops of late C19 date. The north side has a catslide roof with a timber framed gabled staircase dormer with C19 stretcher bond brick nogging rising out of the centre. The north outshot wall is of C19 brickwork with some 1930s metal-framed Crittall windows.
INTERIOR: a lobby with two ledged oak doors, with L-hinges to the western one, leads to two large rooms on the ground floor. The eastern room has an open fireplace with original wooden bressumer but the sides were filled-in with brick and tiles on edge in the 1930s. The ceiling to the greater part of the room has a spine beam with ovolo-moulding with quirk and lambs tongue stop and chamfered floor joists with lambs tongue stops but a C20 RSJ was inserted towards the eastern end and the further side of the room has a spine beam with two inch chamfer and square profile joists. In the C19 the northern part of this room was partitioned off to form smaller spaces with two ledged doors and two four-panelled doors. The western room has a fireplace with chamfered wooden bressumer, ovolo-moulded spine beam with lambs tongue stops and matching ceiling beams.
A C19 straight flight staircase with stick balusters and square newel post was inserted to the north of the chimneystack although a late C18 or early C19 wooden winder staircase survives in the north west corner from ground to first floor. In the outshot the whole of the north timber framed wall of the main house is visible with stretcher bond infill. The first floor comprises three bedrooms and a small room over the north porch. The western room has a chamfered spine beam with runout stops and matching floor joists. Between this and the central room is a plank and muntin panelled partition. Between this room and the eastern room is a partition wall with midrail and diagonal braces with a later C19 cast iron firegrate to the northern end, with a wooden cupboard with butterfly hinges adjoining to the left. There is an ovolo-moulded beam with lambs tongue stop, square section floor joists and original floor boards. The western room has a small fireplace with wooden bressumer with narrow spandrels, a spine beam with ovolo-moulding, lambs tongue stops and floor joists and two ledged doors. The upper part of the chimneystack is visible in a cupboard to the north. The timber framing is visible in the side and rear or south wall with upright posts and window openings, including an altered one in the south wall. A stair turret in the centre of the south wall has a late C18 or early C19 half-winder staircase leading from first floor to attic which has an octagonal central post and plank balustrade at the top. The attic, which is lit through the gable ends, has a roof structure of rafters without ridgepiece and purlins supported by diagonal tension braces.
HISTORY: the date of construction, 1659, is inferred from the date on the oak front door which was stolen in the late C20. The plan form and pattern of timber framing would support that date.
Between 1665 and 1670 the property was occupied by Charles and Mary Beale and their family. Charles Beale had succeeded to his father's post as Deputy Clerk of the Patents Office in 1660 and his wife Mary was a portrait painter with a growing reputation who had already been mentioned, together with three other female painters, in Sir William Sanderson's 'Graphice.....or, The most Excellent Art of Painting' of 1658. The move from London to Eastleigh was caused partly by the insecurity of Charles Beale's career and also the plague in London. During these few years in Eastleigh Mary Beale's self-portrait of 1665 was produced. Also she wrote the 'Essay on Friendship' which put forward the radical idea, for the time, of equality of men and women, both in friendship and marriage. Izaac Walton, author of 'The Compleat Angler', visited the Beales at Allbrook Farmhouse. When the Beales returned to London it was decided that Mary would establish herself as a professional artist and a studio was set up in their rented house in Pall Mall where she lived until her death in 1699.
Allbrook Farmhouse is shown with its present footprint, including the added C19 porch, on the first Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1892. In the early 1980s the property was bought by Eldridge Pope, the brewers, for conversion into a public house but remained empty for sixteen years.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Allbrook Farmhouse is designated at grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* A mid C17 timber framed lobby entrance house retaining original fireplaces, two winder staircases and a plank and muntin panelled partition amongst other features
* It has historic interest as the home, between 1665 and 1670, of Mary Beale and her family. Mary Beale is considered to be the first British artist to support her family by painting.
SOURCES: Edward Roberts, Hampshire Houses 1250-1700. Their Dating and Development, (2003).
Entry on Mary Beale in Dictionary of National Biography (October 2006 online edition).
Entry on Mary Beale in Wikipedia (6 November 2006 edition).
