Summary
Former farmhouse probably dating from around 1700. Transverse eastern range possibly added later in the C18. An ancillary range was added on the south side of the east range around 1960 and the east range itself was extended towards the end of the C20. In the late-C20 the land to the south of the house was developed as commercial kennels. The kennel buildings and the single-storey office adjoining the south end of the house do not form part of the listing.
Reasons for Designation
Treetops, 42 Old Portsmouth Road, Artington, Guildford, a former farmhouse of around 1700 in date, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a brick-built house from around the turn of the C18, Treetops is illustrative of the change from the timber-framed tradition to brick construction for vernacular domestic buildings in this period;
* despite later alterations, the building retains a significant proportion of its historic fabric.
Historical interest:
* the building is likely to be the one depicted in a painting of St Catherine’s Hill by the artist JMW Turner from 1805. It is also shown in some detail in drawings for the Austen Estate dated to 1837.
Group value:
* with a number of other Grade II listed dwellings on the east side of the Old Portsmouth Road which provide a good illustration of the development of domestic architecture locally between the early-C16 and early-C18.
History
The house is thought to date from around 1700. It appears to be shown on the 1768 John Rocque map as part of a cluster of buildings on the east side of the Old Portsmouth Road to the south of St Catherine’s Hill. The 1841 Tithe map shows the building with its current L-shaped plan of a main range to the west and a transverse ancillary eastern range, probably built in the late-C18, and with a long detached outbuilding to the south-west. The house was owned by Sir Henry Edmund Austen and occupied by an Elizabeth Kettle. The principal elevations of the house are depicted in a drawing of 1837 for the Austen Estate. The 1881 census shows that Little Artington Farm, as the site was then known, was occupied by Henry Stuart, a farmer, possibly leasing the farm (of 260 acres) from the Loseley estate which owned the farm by 1938.
A drawing from a planning application for alterations to the building dated 1959 shows the internal layout of the building at that time and the proposed addition of a single-storey range along the south elevation of the eastern wing, which was presumably built soon after. Subsequently the land to the south of the house was developed as kennels. At some point after 1972, the east range was extended further to the east with a single-storey extension.
A painting of St Catherine's Hill from the Wey Navigation done in 1805 by the artist JMW Turner depicts a building in the background that is most likely to be Treetops.
Details
Former farmhouse probably dating from around 1700. Transverse eastern range possibly added later in the C18. An ancillary range was added on the south side of the east range around 1960 and the east range itself was extended towards the end of the C20.
MATERIALS: colour washed red brick with steep-pitched roofs covered with clay tiles. The two-storey eastern range has areas of stone walling and hanging tiles to the upper storey on the north elevation and weatherboarding on the south elevation. The yellow brick single-storey ancillary range is weatherboarded with felted flat roofs.
PLAN: the building consists of a principal two-storey, plus semi-basement, range oriented north-south with a small single-storey link block with a hipped roof at the north end connecting to a two-storey transverse eastern range. The eastern range has a late-C20 brick-built single-storey extension* at the eastern end and a late-C20 brick and timber-built, flat-roofed, single-storey addition* along the south side. These late-C20 extensions are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.
The principal range has lost its original divisions on the ground floor which now has a single room with an inglenook fireplace at either end. The upper-floor has two bedrooms with a bathroom between them, all accessed from a central landing on the west side of the range. The single-storey link block is at a lower level and consists of a single room accessed via a short flight of timber stairs from a door in the north-west corner of the principal range. The two-storey eastern range was not accessed on the site visit but plans show a single room on the ground floor with a door through to the single-storey extension, also of one room. The upper floor is of two rooms with a stair in the south-east corner.
EXTERIOR: the front (west) elevation, onto the Old Portsmouth Road, is of three bays with regular fenestration with three windows on the upper floor and windows either side of the central doorway on the ground floor. The windows are set in plain square-headed openings and, as they are throughout the range, are modern hardwood units with applied diamond pattern leaded glazing strips. The entrance has a modern timber door and a late-C20 flat hood with angled timber supports. Exposed sections of the brickwork, laid in Flemish bond, shows ruled joints to the pointing. The link range at the northern end has an entrance with a modern glazed timber door at a lower level and a single window.
The rear (east) elevation is also broadly symmetrical and of three bays with the same window arrangement as the front elevation. The middle upper-floor window was introduced in the late-C20. The two outer window openings on the upper floor have brick segmental arches with all other openings square-headed. The entrance, with a C20 tile-covered sloping hood and modern ‘stable’ door with glazed upper door, is reached via a flight of C20 concrete and brick steps with flared brick side walls. To the south of the stairs is the entrance to the sub-basement down a flight of steps with a pitched, C20 tile covered porch with timber supports. North of the steps is a two-light timber framed basement window in a segmental-arched opening. The gable ends have substantial projecting three-stage chimneystacks with tiled shoulders. The southern gable end has windows at each level including the attic. The octagonal ground-floor windows and the first floor window were introduced in the late-C20.
The northern elevation of the two-storey eastern extension has irregular fenestration with two windows on each storey. These are modern timber casements with transoms in square openings. The upper floor has hanging tiles and there is a triangular buttress to the ground floor at the western end. The late-C20 single-storey extension*, which is not of special interest and excluded from the listing, has an entrance with an oversailing tile porch and modern timber door and a triple casement window of the same style as in the earlier range. The southern elevation of the eastern range is encased in the 1960s single-storey ancillary range* which is not of special interest and excluded from the listing.
INTERIOR: the ground floor of the main range consists of a single room with inglenook fireplaces at either end. The original partitions have been removed and the original layout lost although it probably consisted of two rooms off a central hallway with a staircase on the north side as shown on the 1959 plan. The staircase has been lost and replaced by a modern metal spiral stair. Three of the irregularly spaced cross beams are original with a replacement beam (to the north of the entrance) introduced probably when the original staircase was removed. The original beams have crude chamfers. The inglenooks have the original bressummers.
The upper floor of the main range has three rooms with exposed, irregularly spaced, beams and joists. The joists in the southern room have been recycled, probably from an old wall plate that has been notched to carry the feet of the common rafters. The fireplaces in both the end rooms have been infilled. The attic floor is lit by a window in the southern gable and has a floor of wide timber boards. The current roof structure is at least partly constructed of modern tie beams, purlins and raking queen struts.
The sub-basement takes up the whole area of the main block with brick relieving arches supporting the end chimney stacks. Most beams and joists are original and are supported in places by later brick piers and dividing walls.
The single-storey link block is reached internally via a timber stair from a door in the north-west corner of the main range. It has a clay tile floor and a fireplace in the north wall without a surround. All fittings are modern. A door in the north wall gives access to the eastern range. The interiors of the rest of the eastern range were not inspected.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest. However any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.
