Details
BATHWICK HILL
(South side)
Oakwood and Bathwick Tower
(Formerly known as Samllcombe
Grove and Smallcombe Villa)
11/02/85
GV II*
Formerly known as: Smallcombe Grove
Formerly known as: Smallcombe Villa
A large detached villa set in landscaped grounds, built in circa 1814, aggrandised in circa 1833 by Edward Davis, and altered in circa 1879 by Gill & Browne and again in circa 1896 by JM Brydon.
MATERIALS: The house is built in stone ashlar with slate roofs.
PLAN: An irregular hillside composition comprising a square block with a broad terrace on its south and west side, and a long range (the former service wing and coach house) to the north along the road with square tower behind.
EXTERIOR: The north elevation, with the main entrances, abuts the pavement and is set to a broad terrace on its south and west fronts; there is a square tower towards the east (higher) end. It has two storeys with basement, and its windows are very varied, mainly casements, but some sash. The road elevation is in two parts, divided by the main entrance porch to Oakwood. The major range, to the left, is double depth with low pitched roof to simple eaves above a large plain and smaller margin light sash, above a small plain sash between a plank door, far left, and a wide pair of panelled doors with sidelights under a large radial fanlight (now the main entrance to the apartments in Bathwick Tower), the sidelights taken to an opening wider than the arch above. This part has an eaves stack to the front, and the return to the left has a pair of small arched lights above a triple sash to the first gable. The square tower with low pyramidal roof lies immediately behind the centre of this range, sandwiched by the later range. Continuing to the right, in the same plane, is a two storey section with basement, having plain sash half-dormers above a large tripartite sash with narrow arched side-lights and segmental centre light, all set flush, and a sash, right, above three small lights near pavement level. There is a central door with cornice on brackets. A plat-band between floors is carried on a series of carved 'D'-brackets.
Further right, the main doorway to Oakwood has paired panelled doors in a Roman Doric pilaster door-case with triglyph frieze, contained by alternating square quoins, all under the cornice and attic with central balustrade. This links to a wide span west facing range with central square bay stepped forward, and a deep bracketed gable over a tripartite simplified Venetian window with blind balustrade, and triple sash to the ground floor, all overlooking the garden. To the street the wall is plain, with a corbelled eaves stack. On the terrace, set back from the gable end, to the west, is a three bay section with stone bracketed eaves over two light casements with central small arched two light window, all to a balcony with open balustrade and panelled dies, above an arcade of seven arches, two of these wide segmental, the others very narrow, covering French doors.
The south elevation is in two parts; the first has a broad plain pilaster, then a panelled attic above three small lights at first floor, and a triple sash with arched and segmental heads to a floating cornice. Beyond this is the later range, brought forward, and with large mullion and transom windows with small scale leading. To the left is a canted bay, over an open basement area carried on two Ionic columns. This range has a moulded ground floor sill band, continuing the line of the adjacent balustrade, upper sill band, moulded cornice, blocking course and parapet, with ball finials above the bay.
INTERIOR: The interior contains many signs of Davis's time in the office of Sir John Soane, such as the starfish vault to the dining room (Davis had worked with Soane on the remodelling of 10 Downing Street, which contains such a feature), the coffered ceiling above the stairs in the hall, the shallow, coffered barrel vaulted ceiling in one of the first floor bedrooms (probably part of the former art gallery), clerestory lighting and incised ornament in an archaic Antique manner. At the entrance, a staircase in stone descends into an ashlar-faced rusticated hall with segmental arches, flush reeded skirtings, recessed architraves, and incised linear ornament. The west section contains a dining room and main bedroom, with a projecting bay at ground floor and a tripartite loggia above (now glazed). The east section uphill (now Bathwick Tower, and of lesser interest) contained the art gallery with Venetian window, servants' quarters, a kitchen, stables at the top corner and a coach house with a shouldered-arch opening.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: To the south and west, the villa is surrounded by a descending terrace supported by a retaining wall built in dressed stone, with an ornamental balustrade matching that to the balcony above on the west elevation. Flights of steps at the north end, on the south-west corner and at its east end lead into the garden stretching out below it. From the north-west corner of the villa runs a c. 2.5 m high stone wall with flat stone coping for c. 250 m westwards, enclosing the garden to the north along Bathwick Hill. Halfway the length of the wall is a decorative Classical-style arched doorway (with evidence that it formerly had a gate), with mid-C19 graffiti, reading F.L - 1851, carved in the stone surround.
SETTING: The villa is surrounded by a landscaped garden, first laid out by Benjamin Barker in circa 1814, with later improvements dating from the mid-1830s, probably by Edward Davis. It includes a series of small lakes, the remains of a walled garden, an Italianate fountain (qv) and flower bed (qv), and an ornamental bridge (qv).
HISTORY: Oakwood and Bathwick Tower form part of a group of early-C19 Italianate villas situated on Bathwick Hill, which include Montebello (now called Bathwick Grange), Fiesole (now a YMCA) and the semi-detached pair La Casetta and Casa Bianca (all listed at Grade II).
In 1814, Oakwood, then known as Smallcombe Villa, was bought by the landscape painter Benjamin Barker (younger brother of the better known painter and lithographer Thomas Barker), and his brother-in-law, the flower painter James Hewlett. Barker's villa forms the southern core of the present house, and was a square building in the Grecian style, rendered with Roman cement; it formed a counterpart to his more successful brother Thomas's Doric House by Gandy, on Sion Hill (q.v. under Cavendish Road). Barker also created a garden, which was visited by Queen Charlotte in 1817.
In 1833, Benjamin Barker was in financial difficulties and subsequently sold Smallcombe Villa to Thomas Emmerson, who renamed it Smallcombe Grove. That same year, Emmerson employed the architect Edward Davis (c1802-1852), a pupil of John Soane who had designed several villas on nearby Entry Hill, to extend the villa and remodel its interior. The remodelling was executed in a Picturesque and eclectic style, and consisted of a west-facing wing to the north of Barker's villa, with a first floor loggia (now filled in) facing the garden; the eastern arm of the extension housed a picture gallery. It is likely that following the remodelling of the villa, the gardens were further improved too.
In 1856, the antiquary and cartographer John Britton recorded in his Autobiography that `at this delectable retreat I spent many happy hours, in company with some of the Bath "Worthies". In that same year Smallcombe Grove was sold and renamed Oakwood, and the sale particulars contain a drawing of the west elevation of the villa and a plan of the garden by the Bristol- based architect William Bruce Gingell.
In 1879 Oakwood was extended by the architects firm Gill & Browne with further servant's accommodation by adding another storey to the wing designed by Davis. In 1896 the distinguished architect John McKean Brydon, added a vestibule and a new south wing in Jacobean style, with mullioned and transom windows lighting a large drawing room with an inglenook fireplace.
In 1928 the villa was bought by General Booth and became a nursing home for retired Salvation Army officers. In 1992-3 Oakwood was re-converted to a house and restored by Forsyth Chartered Architects. As part of these works, the rear servant's quarters and coach house were converted into four flats, now known as Bathwick Tower.
SOURCES:
WB Gingell, Plan of House & Grounds called Smallcombe Grove near Bath, 1856.
S Harding and D Lambert, Parks and Gardens of Avon (1994), pp 74-75.
M Forsyth, Pevsner Architectural Guides-Bath (2003), pp 200-201.
S Sloman, Thomas Barker (1767-1847), painter and lithographer, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-8).
T Mowl and C Fry, Oakwood, Bathwick Hill, Bath: An Appraisal of the Historic Gardens (2008, for Bath and North East Somerset Council).
M Forsyth, Edward Davis: Nineteenth Century Bath Architect and Pupil of Sir John Soane: Bath History VII (1998), 115-8
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Oakwood and Bathwick Tower merit listing at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* It is an early and particularly good example of an Italianate asymmetrical and picturesque villa displaying high quality architectural detailing and design, set within its contemporary landscaped garden containing several garden features
* It includes particularly important distinctive interiors designed by Edward Davis, a pupil of John Soane, in c.1833.
* Subsequent enhancements to the building, some of which are by eminent architects, have added to its special interest and overall architectural quality.
* It has a strong historic association with the landscape painter Benjamin Barker who owned the villa between 1814 and 1833.
* It forms part of an important group of early-C19 Italianate villas on Bathwick Hill in Bath.
Listing NGR: ST7680964315
