Details
SHENLEY CHURCH END
465/0/10015 CALVERTON ROAD
01-APR-04 Shenley Dens Farmhouse
II
Farmhouse. Mid to late C18 with alterations c2000. Built of brick in Flemish bond and rendered to the front elevations. Clay tiled, pitched roof with brick chimneys at either end of the main range. The house has two storeys, with basement and attics to the south range, which has single storey additions with pitched roofs at either end. To the rear is a slightly shorter range set off centre to the main range, with three pitched gabled roofs to the north.
EXTERIOR: The main, south facing elevation has three bays, including a central pedimented bay. It is classically symmetrical and has decoration including a semicircular blank recess at second floor within the pediment, a flat first floor band, a central entrance doorway with semicircular fanlight of petal design (now with plank door). There appears to have been a porch which has been removed. The door is flanked by tripartite windows with glazing bar sashes in reveals with cills; above these, the first floor has Venetian windows. The central first floor window is a twelve-paned sash: the windows were replaced in c2000 (although the openings remain intact), when this elevation was rendered. There are two dormers in the roof, both with C19 two light casements, and cellar windows below ground floor level. At either end of this elevation is a single storey wing, also rendered. The west wing has a blank recess to the front and door to the rear, the east a C19 sash and a wide blocked doorway to the rear. The side elevations have moulded brick eaves. The rear elevation has three two storey gables, with mostly C20 replacement windows. A quantity of roof timbers survive intact. To the rear is a courtyard surrounded by single storey C19 farm buildings; these are not of special interest, and are not included in the listing.
INTERIOR: The south range has a central lobby with rooms on either side, both with doors with six raised and fielded panels and L-hinges, although two doors have been removed. Both rooms have a chamfered ceiling beam with ogee stops at one end only; the east room has an inglenook fireplace with bressumer, and the fireplace in the west room has been removed. Between these rooms is the stair to the first floor, an early to mid-C18 dogleg staircase with moulded handrail, ramped where it turns at the landing. It is an open string stair with tread ends carved with a floral motif, turned balusters (two to each tread) and fluted newels. Only the newels and tread ends survived in place at the time of inspection; the remainder had been salvaged following vandalism and was in store. The staircase is very similar to one of 1728 a few miles away.
The rear wing contains an entrance lobby and cloakroom, and a large room known as the 'ballroom' which, at the time of inspection, had been in a suspended process of renovation. It contains several steel joists, and one ceiling beam; the unplastered walls contain bonding timbers.
The baluster continues around the first floor landing, on the north side of which are two semi-circular arched openings with moulded architraves, with keyblocks and imposts, flanking a panelled door which leads to the attic stair. The two front bedrooms contain ceiling beams, and all doors are six panelled. The two front attics have been recently renovated, with new plasterboard walls. The purlins are visible. The roofs to the rear have some of their original timbers, including purlins, raking struts and wind braces, although many of the rafters have been replaced.
The cellars have chamfered beams, which are recycled and thought to be C17, supporting floor joists.
HISTORY: A map of the Salden Estate of 1599 shows the site of Shenley Dens, a field in the ownership of Earl de Grey. But the first evidence for a house here is to be found on Thomas Jeffreys' map of 1770, although it is not clearly identified as a farm until 1814. A map of this date recording the property of William Selby Lowndes, the owner of the Whaddon Estate, identifies Shenley Dens (or Devils Den Farm, as it is named on the map) as belonging to the estate, and is the first map to accurately represent field and property boundaries. The farm's present farm buildings appear to date to the later C19. Historic Ordnance Survey maps show that the plan of the house and farmyard have changed little since 1885.
In 1698 the Whaddon Estate was bought from the Duke of Buckingham's trustees by Thomas Willis and James Selby, the greater part of which went to Selby, although Willis had part of Whaddon Hall. James Selby's son Thomas left the estate to his friend William Lowndes, who was to take the name of Selby. The name of Lowndes was joined to that of Selby in 1813, the year before the map mentioned above. In the C18 Browne Willis rebuilt the hall, which came to the Selby family in the latter part of the 18th century: the present Whaddon Hall was built in 1802. Whaddon Hall can be seen from Shenley Dens, where it stands on high ground across the valley. In the C19 a short avenue of tree running north from Whaddon Hall appears to have been aligned on the farmhouse.
SOURCES: A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3 (1925), Parishes: Whaddon with Nash, pp. 435-442.
Buckinghamshire County Council website; http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/
M Borodzin-Bidnell, 'A Palladian staircase in Milton Keynes', in "The Georgian", Autumn/Winter 2002.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Shenley Dens Farmhouse is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is a mid to late C18 house, a significant proportion of the fabric of which survives intact.
* Despite renovation in c2000 the essential classical appearance and character of the main south elevation survives.
* The plan form survives intact as do significant internal features, including doors and landing detail.
* It is of interest as part of the historic Whaddon Estate, and has a strong visual relationship with Whaddon Hall. It is part of the historic landscape to the west of Milton Keynes centred on Whaddon Chase.
