The Fowl House, Formerly Associated With Bowden Green

Details

PANGBOURNE

278/0/10014 PANGBOURNE ROAD 05-SEP-06 The fowl house, formerly associated wi th Bowden Green

GV II Fowl House, 1897 by Arnold Mitchell in an Arts and Crafts style. It is built in red brick, with tile roof and a lead roof to the turret.

DESCRIPTION: The fowl house is a small octagonal building located in the garden of the property 'Leeward'. It has a red brick plinth bonded in white mortar above which is continuous fenestration, interrupted only by the two opposing doorways. The windows are fixed and are timber framed with twelve pane leaded lights and a continuous timber cill. The doors, which are to the north and south, are simple plank doors with decorative iron hinges. The roof is tiled with boarded eaves and has a central decorated octagonal turret with a lead roof, which would have allowed pigeon/dove access. This has turned corner pilasters, a moulded cornice and an elegant lead roof. The interior consists of a single space with a concrete floor (not original). A wooden bench has been added against the wall to the east of the north door. The suspended ceiling and the walls up to window level are boarded. The ceiling has a square central hatch allowing access to the small roof space.

HISTORY: The fowl house was built in 1897 to the design of Arnold Mitchell as part of a complex of ancillary service structures (which also included a coachman's cottage, stables, pump/engine house and kitchen garden) to the grade II* listed Bowden Green House, now the Junior School, Pangbourne College. A photograph in the 'Studio' magazine dating to 1898 shows the fowl house essentially as it is now although with the addition of external brick ground floor nest/shelter boxes with tile roofs, and secondary honeycomb glazing behind the leaded lights. The pigeon/dove openings to the turret were arched entrances between the turned pilasters although these are now blocked. SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The former fowl house of 1897 is by Arnold Mitchell, a well-known Edwardian architect, who designed a number of buildings that are now listed. The fowl house is of special interest as relatively intact, elegant and high quality garden structure of the late C19. They are a physical expression of the infrastructure required to supply large country houses in the late C19 and have group value with the adjacent and contemporary fowl house and with the Junior School, which they were designed to serve.

SOURCES: 'A Modern English Country House' in Studio magazine, 1898, pp245-247.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

502223

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Studio magazine in A Modern English Country House, (1898), 245-247

End of official list entry

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