Sunnycroft

Details

1126/0/10057 HOLYHEAD ROAD 29-OCT-07 Wellington Sunnycroft

GV II The house was built in two phases, of 1880 and 1899, for J.G.Wackrill and was probably designed and erected by the local builder, Alfred Roper and Sons.

MATERIALS: Red brick laid in English garden wall bond with three rows of stretchers to one of headers with stone and polychrome brick dressings and a slate roof. The original build of 1880 and the additions of 1899 are close in style, although the bricks are slightly different in size and colour.

EXTERIOR: The garden front has two bays at left which date from the 1880 build. These have a canted bay with hipped roof to ground floor left and the other windows are all four pane sashes and all have stone lintels which rise to a central point. The first floor windows have pointed relieving arches of alternating yellow and black bricks which rise into the gables above each bay. To left is a slightly projecting bay of the later 1899 build which is broadly similar in design with French windows to the ground floor and paired sashes with plate glass windows to the first floor. At ground floor level along this front is a cast iron verandah with glazed roof. The entrance front all dates from the 1899 additions and has a projecting gabled wing at right. At left is the flank of the dining room wing which is blank save for one small window and a chimney which projects from the wall. In the re-entrant angle is a polygonal bay with the front door set above a flight of stone steps with a fanlight and a stone surround. Above this at first floor level is a projecting oriel and this supports an octagonal turret with panelled sides and a hipped roof which rises to a weather vane. The kitchen court, at north, has a single-storey range housing a cold store, granary, slaughterhouse and boiler house. Joined at the north is a vine house and kennels with iron railings. INTERIOR: The addition of rooms in 1899 also involved the refitting of much of the interior. The materials used were of high quality and richly decorated and mostly chosen from manufacturers catalogues. The porch and entrance hall have polychromatic encaustic floor tiles by Maws & Co., The staircase hall has an open-well staircase with Jacobean-style newels and balustrade of mahogany and pine, a panelled, coved ceiling and stained glass skylight. The billiard room retains its panelled ceiling and gasolier above the table [converted to electricity]. The drawing room has a fitted upholstered bench or 'cosy corner' with mirror-backed shelves. Throughout the kitchen, larder, pantry and scullery are the original cupboards and shelves. Original panelled doors, marble fireplaces, radiators and wall-mounted gas lights [converted to electricity] survive throughout the house. Panelled ceilings and original wallpapers and Lyncrusta paper below the dado survive in several of the rooms.

HISTORY: A relatively modest villa which had two bays to the garden front was built in 1880 for JG Wackrill, the founder of the Shropshire Brewery in the nearby town of Wellington. At ground floor level this house comprised the rooms which are now the drawing room, smoke room, morning room, staircase hall, kitchen and pantry and larder. In the 1890s it was bought by Mary Jane Slaney, widow of a wine and spirit merchant and in 1899 she extended the house by adding the present dining room, billiard room, entrance hall and porch as well as the gentlemen's cloakroom and the lavatory and store adjacent to the kitchen. No architect is recorded as being involved and it is likely that the plan was agreed with a firm of local builders, Alfred Roper and Sons. In 1912 the house was bought by Mrs Slaney's brother-in-law, JVT Lander, a solicitor, and remained in the family until 1997. Mr Lander added to the land-holding of the small estate and parts of this land were compulsorily purchased after the Second World War but the house itself suffered few alterations. In the late 1940s washbasins were fitted in the bedrooms and mains electricity came in 1947 when the former gas lights were converted.

SOURCES: Sunnycroft, National Trust guidebook, 2000

Reason for Designation Decision:

Sunnycroft is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The remarkable completeness of its interior decoration. * The exceptional survival of a wide range of fixtures and fittings including its gas lights, original decorative scheme to the principal rooms and unusual `Gold Medal Eagle Fire Grates' to the bedrooms. * A survival of a Victorian suburban villa estate retaining its range of outbuildings including its kitchen court, vine house, conservatory and kennels.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

492157

Legacy System:

LBS

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