Dornden Innerdown Middle House

Details

TQ 53 N SPELDHURST LANGTON ROAD (north side), LANGTON GREEN 8/525 Dornden, Middle House and Innerdown

II

House, divided into 3. Original phase late C19, said to have been built for Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria. House extensively altered and largely rebuilt in 1925 to the designs of Compton Hall (information from the owner) in an eclectic Vernacular Revival style. The original house is local sandstone roughly brought to course with ashlar dressings. The 1925 additions are in stretcher bond brick with some stone buttresses and timber-framed detail; peg-tile roof; stacks with brick shafts.

Plan: South-facing. Dornden is to the west, Innerdown to the east. Approximately rectangular plan. Middlehouse contains the principal rooms including the stair hall and has a front and rear porch. Dornden and Innerdown are less regular with various asymmetrical blocks.

Exterior: 2 storeys, Middlehouse with attics. Asymmetrical 9-window south front, the entrance block (Middlehouse) stone and slightly set back with 3 symmetrical bays with a moulded eaves cornice. 2-storey C17 style projecting porch in the centre with Corinthian pilasters and a nowy-headed parapet with a ball finial. Elliptical arched doorway with Tudor style spandrels and a glass panelled door below a nowy-headed panel with a moulded string course above it. Stone mullioned windows with square leaded panes to the porch and flanking bays, the ground floor windows with high transoms. 2 attics dormers with segmental arched heads. To the left of the entrance block a brick gabled projection with left and right buttresses and close-studded framed gable with plain bargeboards; flat-faced timber mullion and transom windows with square leaded panes. At the extreme left a 2-bay brick block in the Queen Anne style with a dentil cornice, timber mullioned windows and segmental-headed attic dormer. To the right of the porch block a similar 2-bay Queen Anne style block with windows and cornice matching the other. At the right end a one-bay battlemented stone block with a 2-storey canted bay with sash windows. The rear elevation continues in the same style with stone mullioned windows to Middlehouse including a 4-light stair window with 2 transoms. Gabled rear porch with a moulded elliptical doorway with a ball finial and a plank door with strap hinges. Irregular east return, again with a mixture of brick and stone and mullioned windows. The east side of the battlemented block has a corbelled first floor stack.

Interior: The entrance hall (Middlehouse) is lined with oak panelling and preserves a Jacobean-style stair, probably dating from the first building phase, with a closed string, turned balusters, a moulded flat handrail and square newels. Other interior features of interest from both phases may survive.

Listing NGR: TQ5592039267

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

439230

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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