Details
723/0/10044 MERRYMEADE CHASE
Merrymeade House and attached garden
wall, Merrymeade Chase, off Sawyers
Hall Lane
II
Country house. 1912 by Hugo R. Bird, for Robert Horne-Payne. Red brick in Flemish bond with red brick dressings. Plaintile roofs. Red brick quoins and platband. Two storeys and attics, with one and a half storey service wing with basement. Near symmetrical entrance front arranged 2:2:1:2:2, with central bay and outer wings breaking forward. Deep timber modillion cornice. Central entrance bay under segmental pediment with moulded mutules. Fluted doorcase with flat broken canopy on richly carved brackets. Pair of doors each of three moulded panels beneath fanlight. Above, tripartite horned sash. Returns and flanking wall with ovoid oculi. Secondary entrance to left set back under simple round arch. Other windows are horned timber sashes. Two-light half hipped dormer to all but central bay. Tall slender brick stacks with slightly moulded caps set against forward wings.
Lower service wing has small paned double and tripartite casement windows, and
two-light half hipped dormers.
Garden front. Detailed as entrance front. Arranged 2:2:2:2:2, near symmetrical except for position of dormers and stacks. Central and outer bays break forward under half-hipped roofs. Central ground floor bow window with fluted pilasters between horned sashes, under dentil cornice. First floor and outer bays have horned sashes with shutters, inner bays have horned sashes. Garden doors each with fielded lower panel and 3 x 2 glazed upper panes, under three-light overlight. Left hand and central bays have half-hipped two-light dormers. Inner right bay has similar four-light dormer. Tall stacks at gable walls and to left of central bay. Ornate cast iron rainwater heads inscribed A.H.P (Alice Horne-Payne) and R.H.P.
Service wing. Five ground floor bays and four first floor bays under deep swept hipped roof. Ground floor two-light mullion and transom casements, upper floor
two-light half-hipped dormers. Stack to outer end of ridge.
West elevation. Ground floor curved bay in brick under hemispherical tiled roof, with horned sashes and door set on the curve, with fielded lower panel and glazed upper panes, under three light overlight. Cast iron band with maple leaf panels alternating with beaver and moose, and with scalloped edge, continuing as rain water head similarly detailed, inscribed A.H.P. Ornate downspouts and upper hopper, inscribed R.H.P.
Interior. Inner porch. Pair of inner doors with leaded lights. Architrave inscribed: 'Enter dear Lord mine house with me until I enter thine house with thee.' Hall fully panelled in small panels with dentil cornice. Similar doors with brass door furniture. Moulded stone chimneypiece with fireback of tiles set diagonally. Moulded ribbed plaster ceiling. Stair with panelled dado, carved strings, turned balusters, two per tread, square carved newels, ramped carved and moulded rail, at upper landing ramped to each post. Drawing room (M1), classical chimneypiece with engaged fluted Ionic columns, flanked by horizontal niches beneath mirrors in moulded architraves. Moulded dado rail. Garlanded frieze. Low relief plaster ceiling with central foliate ring with roundels bearing figures. Pair of doors, the inner face each of three moulded panels in enriched architrave beneath flat canopy. Slender moulded architrave to blank wall panel. Garden room (M2) Timber moulded chimneypiece with tile slips. Moulded frieze and shallow plaster ceiling. Library (M3) Chimneypiece with eared architrave, green glazed tile fireback. Study (M4) Panelled with integral angle chimneypiece with tile slips. Dining Room (M5) Heavy carved chimneypiece with cast iron duck's nest grate in C18 manner. Ship tiles. Ornate ribbed plaster ceiling. Door with six moulded panels on inner face similar to those in principal ground floor rooms.
Service wing. Series of housekeeper's and butler's rooms, and gun room each with simple angle chimneypieces, with plain glazed tile fireplaces and hearths. Altered kitchens leading to cold room, with slate slabs. Terrazzo passage floors. Gun room and first floor door architraves have corner rosettes. Service end doors, on both floors, of four panels in moulded architraves. First floor rooms each with fine chimneypiece, with bee, bird or townscape tiles, some possibly reused. Some with fine duck's nest grates. Service wing fireplaces and rounded hearths each of single coloured glazed tiles. Back stair has square newels with faceted caps, stick balusters, moulded rail. Stair to attic floor has stick balusters set diagonally.
Attached garden wall.
Curved red brick wall in Flemish bond, with brick pilasters and tiled coping,. terminating in square pier with faceted cap; lower ramped return terminating in similar but lower pier. Similar gate piers to cast iron gate and margin panels with enriched dog bars, under shaped scrolled overthrow terminating in tall finial. Brick arched gateway to service yard.
The house was built for Robert Horne-Payne, local business man, who formerly lived at The Hermitage, Shenfield Road. He made a fortune on the Canadian railways, hence the Canadian references on the rainwater goods. Little is known of Hugo R Bird except that the house follows contemporary precepts set out by, for example Ernest Newton, with subtle nuances making it nearly but not exactly symmetrical, and contrasting tones of entrance and garden fronts. Typical of this period, the house is an example of high quality craftsmanship, particularly joinery, and remains remarkably intact giving a full picture of how it operated. The contemporary gardens survive with remains of a garden pavilion, formerly thatched and a small bridge on the main drive. The adjacent stables, converted, and gardener's house survive. The gardens overlook the former County Cricket Ground, in which Horne- Payne, although an invalid, took a keen interest.
