Putteridge Bury (Luton College of Higher Education)

Details

OFFLEY HITCHIN ROAD TL 12 SW (East side) Luton

6/93 Putteridge Bury - (Luton College of Higher Education)

GV II

Country house, now a college of education. 1908-11 by Ernest George and Alfred Yeates for Thomas Meadows Clutterbuck, on site of a Regency house, George's last country house. Gardens redesigned by Gertrude Jekyll and E.L. Lutyens. A research station 1954-62, acquired by Luton Corporation 1965. Narrow red brick in English-bond with moulded limestone dressings, windows and doorways. Chequerwork of limestone and squared knapped flint to high plinth on entrance front and lower stage of central porch on garden front. Half-timbered jettied gables upper parts to W service block. Steep roofs of graduated stone slabs to all parts, and tall ornamental red brick chimneys. A tall U-shaped 2-storeys, attics and cellars house in the English Early Renaissance Style, with an irregular lower W service block designed to appear as an older half-timbered house. Irregular recessed entrance front on N with unequal gabled wings, dining room in shorter W wing, ballroom in larger E wing. 3 steps to central 4-centred arched and moulded entrance with heavy battened oak door with decorative iron hinges. Continuous dripmould stepping down over 2-light mullioned windows with arched heads to lights flanking the doorway and again over row of 2-light square-headed mullion windows to each side. Carved heraldic panel over door has mantled shield with lion rampant with 3 scallops in chef and helmet with seated stag as crest. Crenelated parapet above trefoil headed windows of 1st floor. Tall projecting bay of staircase in angle to left. Symmetrical 7-windows wide (S) garden front with 4 parapeted gables separated by 2 large 2-storeys, semi-octagonal bay windows with mullioned and transomed stone windows and crenelated parapets, and narrow 2-storeys central porch of equal height to bays. 3 large chimneys along ridge. 4-centred arched doorway in expanded base of porch in chequerwork. Cross-window to 1st floor and armorial plaque over large sundial above. Broad York stone terrace with red brick for revetment wall and separate piers and dies supporting arched stone coping. Flights of steps each end lead down to garden. S range of 2-storeys W service block faced in narrow red brick where seen from garden has twin half-timbered gables near E end and large projecting chimney near W end with 3 tall multi-faceted shafts and brick pediment motif on base. E end of this wing is a 3-arched loggia with diagonal corner buttress, 2 arches in E end and oriel window under jettied gable triangle. Recessed link to main house has continuous leaded glazed jettied timber framed gallery to 1st floor with herringbone brick panels and transomed continuous leaded windows to ground floor with heavy battened door on right. Loggia has moulded stone arches, grey and white patterned stone floor, and plaster compartmented ceiling with rosettes and central figure with initials 'B.M:1.9:T.M:0.8' in a circle around interlaced capital Cs. The date '1908' appears on rainwater heads on N, E, and S fronts. Service block has oak mullioned windows transomed on ground floor under segmental relieving arches, and flat topped dormers on roofslope of W side. N side has 3 gabled projections with red brick on ground floor but jettied and half-timbered above. Very large window to servants' hall in middle wing. The interior is in keeping with oak panelling and panelled doors, half-glazed screens with many small panes, Flemish-style dog-leg stair with moulded string, turned balusters and triangular wooden steps moulded on the raking underside. Painted heraldic glass set in ground floor windows on S front to E of central porch. Oak panelled rectangular dining room with elaborate plaster barrel vault with strapwork and mythological scenes. Carved chimneypiece with caryatid supports and strapwork over mantle. Tall ballroom with fluted pilasters on pedestals. (Clive Aslet The Last Country Houses London (1982) 129, 327).

Listing NGR: TL1196424780

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

163103

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Aslet, C, The Last Country House, (1982), 129,327

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 21 Hertfordshire,

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