Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 03/02/2012
SU90029358
985/0/10021
CHEPPING WYCOMBE
STRETTON CLOSE, TYLERS GREEN
Katherine Knapp Residential Home
II
Country House, later nursing home. c.1901-05, with minor later-C20 alterations. Unnamed London architect, Oak panelling by Messrs. Smee & Cobay, Plaster ceilings by Bankhardt. Brick and rough cast with tiled hipped and gabled roofs and rendered chimneystacks. Metal casements in wooden frames with leaded lights, some with metal hardware. 2 storeys and L-shaped plan with main elevation facing garden in an Arts and Crafts style.
EXTERIOR: SOUTH elevation to garden has advanced large gable to right end with wide window to first floor incorporating canted oriel, above 4-light cross frame window. To left, a single storey porch with hipped roof, continuous band of windows, and 4 part-glazed wooden doors, all under two 3-light windows. To left of centre, a canted 2-storey bay under small gable with applied and pegged close studding supported on curved braces, canted 5-light window at first floor above 10-light cross frame window. To left end, hipped roof from which projects a canted bay with similarly detailed gable, a 5-light canted window to first floor, above pargetting dated 1905, and 10-light cross frame window. Gables to all elevations have bargeboards with exposed purlins and drop pendants at apex. 3 truncated chimney stacks on south side of pitched roof. Pair of flared buttresses to left corner. Return elevation has single storey, late-C20 link to late-C20 nursing home wing, not included in the listing. EAST elevation with full height chimneybreast to left, now under gable where stack has been truncated. To right, flush at ground floor with 3-light casement under shallow tiled roof, above is recessed with 3-light casement. Central advanced gable with canted 5-light bay window to first floor under projecting dentilled cornice, above pargetting and 10-light cross frame window. To right, ground floor canted bay with 6-light window, under 3-light and 2-light windows. To right end, similarly detailed gable with two 3-light windows at first floor and single windows at ground floor including semi-circular window under rendered drip mould. Truncated end stack. NORTH elevation with entrance porch, wood framed with glazed lights on brick plinth. Advanced part-glazed and moulded door under hipped tiled roof with side lights and corner pilasters. To left, advanced stair tower with 5 lights over 2, all under projecting dentilled eaves cornice. To right, advanced gable with 6-light wide window to first floor incorporating oriel. Small dormer with large light cuts the eaves to far right. Rear elevation facing WEST has large gable to left end with two 3-light windows to first floor, and lower gable with windows at right end abutting stair tower.
INTERIOR: Entrance Hall with oak dado and joinery to former Billiard Room with higher panelling, red glazed brick fireplace under oak mantle with ogee apron, and embossed plaster ceiling. Oak staircase with heavy vase balusters, square newels with cushion finials, and first floor oak balustrade, complete but rearranged to incorporate chair lift. Series of rooms with oak panelling under plaster relief frieze. Room to southeast corner has panelled ceiling with deep moulded ribs and foliate decoration, and similarly detailed circles within each panel, walls with tall painted oak panelling under foliate plaster frieze, and wood chimneypiece with classical detailing. Room to west end with relief plaster ceiling with foliate decoration at the intersections and a part-gilded flourish to the corner of each square, shallow cornice with foliate band, oak dado panelling, architraves and panelled doors. To east of room, an inglenook study with full-height oak panelling, joists with plasterwork with roses between, and oak chimneypiece.
HISTORY: Built as 'Ashwells' c.1901-05 and including extensive outbuildings and grounds appropriate for such a large country house. In the 1940s, it became the Katherine Knapp Home for the Blind.
SOURCES: Sale catalogue for 'The Ashwells and Manor Farm Estate' from July, 1916 auction at Buckinghamshire County Council Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies.
A large Edwardian Country House that, despite being converted to a nursing home, retains its Arts and Crafts massing and materials, as well as a generous quantity of high quality panelling and plasterwork.
