Reasons for Designation
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION:
Brocket is recommended for designation for the following principal reasons:
* A substantially intact and decorative early C20 house displaying Arts & Crafts influences.
* Evidence for craftsmanship in the quality and use of materials in both the exterior and interior finishes.
Details
27/0/10010
BOYN HILL AVENUE
15, Brocket
30-JAN-08
II
Former detached house, now council offices. 1906-7 to the designs of Clifton Robert Davy for Henry Cooper. Minor late C20 alterations.
MATERIALS: red brick with a tile roof, half-timbering and Ham Hill stone detailing.
PLAN: a substantial three-storey building with the second floor within the roof space. Ground floor: an off-centre main entrance to the north opens into a generous hall flanked by reception rooms. There is a contemporary conservatory, described as the winter garden on original plans, to the south-west. The main staircase is adjacent to the entrance and there is a back stair to the west. The service rooms are in the north-west corner of the property including the kitchen, scullery and servants' hall. First floor: longitudinal corridor with bed, dressing and bath rooms off. Second floor: series of small servants rooms within the eaves off a further longitudinal corridor. Partial cellar of several rooms to the west.
EXTERIOR: The house has two main facades: to the north is the entrance façade fronting Boyn Hill Avenue; to the south is the garden façade. The former is typified by a deep tiled roof interrupted by gables of varying sizes, tall brick chimneys with ranks of diagonal pots and dormers. Two larger end gables are half-timbered, that to the west is decorated with quadrant-bracing. The entrance gable is largely in Ham Hill stone with an oriel window above the entrance arch. This bay is decorated with carved floral plaques, a wreath surrounding the initials 'H C' for the owner Henry Cooper, and the date 'AD 1907'. The arch and key stone are inscribed: 'THROUGH THIS OPENING GATE/NONE COME TOO EARLY NONE RETURN TOO LATE/WELCOME THE COMING SPEED THE PARTING GUEST.' The front door is round-headed with inserted lights. There are windows with mullions and also with mullions and transoms, all with leaded lights including a pair of large stair windows. The garden façade is also asymmetrical although has two almost identical projecting bays with hipped roofs, half timbering to the first floor and canted bay windows, with mullion and transom ground floor windows with Ham Hill stone surrounds. These bays flank a vernandah supported on attractive pegged and braced timber posts. The winter garden conservatory, to the west, is timber framed above a brick dwarf wall and with a glazed pitched roof.
INTERIOR: The most decorative interiors are inevitably on the ground floor. The large entrance hall is a handsome room with a series of round headed moulded arches to the north in oak, oak panelling up to the picture rail and a timber ceiling with moulded beams and exposed joists. There is a feature fireplace with an oak mantle and panelled overmantle, a copper fire surround and decorative tiles. The survival of fireplaces throughout the property is very good with some having moulded timber mantels, attractive tiles and decorated metal fire surrounds and grates. The former drawing room and dining room (to the south-east and south-west of the hall respectively) retain their original plaster ceilings decorated with foliate swags and plaques. There is a good survival of decorative iron door and window furniture. A delightful feature is the oak banister to the main staircase which terminates with a lion's head on the ground floor and with its tail at first floor level. The first floor and second floor have experienced some modernisation including the replacement of some internal doors with fire doors but original features do survive including a number of fireplaces, and the plan-form is largely as built. The service rooms on the ground floor retain their glazed tile wall-treatment and there are both solid wooden and heavy metal doors to the cellar. The kitchen range also survives.
ANCILLARY FEATURES: To the south is a terrace which is paved and has brick retaining walls capped in stone. To the north is a very handsome wall in brick and stone with projecting pilasters and piers topped with moulded caps and ball finials. The wooden gates are also original and have barley-sugar posts and decorative iron hinges. There are further gate piers to the west and east here.
HISTORY: Brocket was built in 1906-7 as a private house to the designs of the architect Clifton Robert Davy, FRIBA (1879-1929). The builder was J K Cooper & Sons Ltd of Maidenhead (responsible for a large number of buildings in the town) and the owner is believed to be part of the same family, one Henry Cooper. The interior plasterwork was by a local craftsman, Mr Baldwin, in consultation with the architect, and the casements and ironwork by Mr E Norkett of Maidenhead. The house exhibits the influence of the Arts & Crafts movement, drawing on the vernacular building tradition in its detailing and use of materials. Historical map evidence indicates that Boyn Hill Avenue began to be developed in the late C19 century. The house was owned by Edward Fraser Holroyd from 1912 until 1937. In 1949 it is listed in Kelly's Directory as being occupied by the Anti-Attrition Metal Company but was then sold again in 1950 when it was acquired by Berkshire County Council and was variously a Technical Research Institute, East Berkshire College of Further Education and a Child Guidance Clinic. The property has remained in local authority hands since that time, passing to the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead in 1997 with the abolition of the county council and the establishment of unitary authorities in Berkshire. The architect, Clifton Davy, was articled to his father, Robert Clifton Davy (d. 1908) between 1898 and 1902. He remained as his father's assistant until 1905 when he set up his own practice in Maidenhead in partnership with Robert in Maidenhead (until 1908), and then with Frank Woods. He was responsible for numerous private houses in the Maidenhead area and in Chelsea where one of his commissions, a block of flats at 5 Mulberry Walk, Chelsea (c1913), is listed at Grade II. He also designed a number of village halls, church schools and Temple Golf Club.
SOURCES: Obituary of Clifton R Davy, 1929, in RIBA Journal, v36, 18 May 1929, p531
Brocket, Boyn Hill Avenue, Maidenhead for Sale by Private Auction on Wednesday, 19th April, 1950. Sales particulars.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION:
Brocket is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* A substantially intact and decorative early C20 house displaying Arts & Crafts influences.
* Evidence for craftsmanship in the quality and use of materials in both the exterior and interior finishes.
