Millwater

Reasons for Designation

Millwater is recommended for designation at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Millwater originated as a c1600 lobby entrance house, and its plan is still readable despite later alterations. * These later alterations, which include C18 brick refronting and Leonard Stokes early-C20 river room and staircase, add additional architectural interest; * A significant amount of c1600 timberframing is visible internally together with the internal and external brick chimneystacks; * Decorative detail includes the attic staircase with latticed balustrading, an original C19 iron casement and the interesting vertically opening continuous casements of Leonard Stokes' river room; * Millwater is a substantially intact c1600 timberframed lobby entrance house which has acquired additional interest from the Leonard Stokes river room and staircase. Although the west end gable above the river room has been recently extended further west and the panelled parapet above it extended there is little impact on the river room.

Details

OCKHAM

517/0/10027 MILL LANE 11-MAY-10 Millwater

GV II House, formerly farmhouse. Circa 1600 lobby entrance house refronted in C18. In the early C20, after 1917 and before 1925, the architect Leonard Stokes (1858-1925) built a river room to the west and staircase tower for his brother Sir Wilfrid Scott Stokes (1860-1927). C21 extensions to the north and attached C19 open-fronted cart shed to the east are not of special interest.

MATERIALS: Timberframed building with contemporary external and internal brick chimneystacks, refronted in Flemish bond brick with some grey headers with tiled roofs. The river room is of red brick with continuous glazing to the ground floor.

PLAN: Rectangular lobby entrance plan, extended in the early-C20 by one bay to the west and to the north by the construction of a staircase tower and part of a north wing which changed the plan to an L-shape.

EXTERIOR: The principal south elevation has a moulded wooden cornice and two projecting gabled sections, the western one early-C19, the eastern C20. The irregular fenestration is mainly of three-light C19 or C20 casements but includes two canted bays and a circular window to the ground floor. The east side has exposed timbers in the attic gable and an external brick chimneystack with c1600 brickwork. The west side has an early-C21 gabled attic extension replicating the earlier one with lunette and French windows opening out on to the flat roof of Leonard Stokes' projecting river room, which consists of ground floor continuous glazed windows on three sides, taking full advantage of the river views, over a basement of red brick with stone footings. To the north is a three-storey, one-bay, early-C20 staircase tower with hipped roof and casement windows. Further north is a two-storey, early-C20 wing with lunette and bay windows. The north side has a series of flat-roofed dormers and recently constructed extension on the ground floor.

INTERIOR: The south ground floor room, originally the parlour, has an exposed axial beam but reproduction fielded panelling and stone fireplace with eared architraves in an early-C18 style. The central south ground floor room has visible wall framing of the original north external wall, chamfered spine beams and floor joists. It was originally two rooms but the partition has been removed. There is an open fireplace with modern bressumer and side posts. The main staircase in the north-eastern corner of this room is a modern reproduction in early-C18 style. The ground floor south-eastern room has been entirely refurbished in the early-C21 and has a brought-in stone fireplace in the north wall with slender engaged columns and quatrefoil motifs. Leading off from this room is the river room which has casement windows which slide vertically. The eastern first floor bedroom has exposed ceiling beams and north wall frame, including a curved brace and an early-C19 iron casement window. A south bathroom has an early-C20 leaded light window bearing an emblem from the Lovelace family crest. A western bedroom also has wall framing to the north wall, ceiling beams visible and an early-C19 fireplace with brackets. A winder staircase with wooden lattice balustrading at the top leads to the attics which have exposed framing in the eastern end gable, two framed partitions and part of the roof structure with purlins and a curved brace is visible. The top of the c1600 internal chimneystack is exposed and there is an early-C19 plank door with iron hinges.

HISTORY: Millwater was probably a farmhouse originally and it belonged to the Lovelace estate. On the First Edition Ordnance Survey map it is called Millwater and has large compartmentalised gardens, suggesting that it was by then a gentleman's residence rather than a farmhouse. The painter Frederick William Hulme (1816-1884), who specialised in landscape paintings of Surrey, is reported as being a former resident of the house. In the spring of 1901 Wilfrid Scott Stokes, who became chairman of the engineering firm Ransome and Rapiers and was brother to the architect Leonard Stokes, took a three-month lease on Millwater as a country cottage. Lord Lovelace would not grant longer leases so the lease was continuously renewed. In 1917 Wilfrid was knighted for his invention of the Stokes Mortar, a lightweight portable mortar used in the First World War in the trenches and in naval operations such as the Zeebrugge Raid. As a result of the knighthood, Lord and Lady Lovelace came to tea and offered Sir Wilfrid a 50-year lease. Leonard Stokes is likely to have constructed the river room about this time as Ordnance survey maps including the 1914 edition do not show this feature. Leonard Stokes died in 1925 and his brother Wilfrid in 1927. The river room is shown on the 1935 Ordnance Survey map, by which time there is also a narrow northern L-wing including a staircase tower. The original building was extended to the north and the L-wing extended to the east in the early-C21.

SOURCES: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries on Sir Wilfrid Scott Stokes and Leonard Stokes. Jan Ward Article on Leonard Stokes in "Local History Records. Bourne Society Magazine." 1999. Jan Ward "Leonard Stokes - Architect in a Dressing Gown". 2009.Ps 107-109.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: * A c1600 lobby entrance house retaining a significant amount of original fabric and a readable plan form despite later additions; * An early-C20 river room with vertically sliding continuous casements and north wing including staircase tower by the client's brother, the distinguished architect Leonard Stokes, enhances the architectural interest of this building; * The building has historic interest because the client of the early-C20 wing, Sir Wilfrid Scott Stokes, was the inventor of the Stokes mortar, for which he was knighted.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

505557

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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