Rowden Abbey

Summary

House, built in 1881 to a design by John Douglas in the Domestic Revival style for Henry Bailey. The single-storey, L-shaped ancillary building attached to the north elevation is excluded from the List entry.

Reasons for Designation

Rowden Abbey, a Domestic Revival house of 1881 by John Douglas is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: as an important Domestic Revival house within Douglas’ oeuvre which demonstrates good massing and an exceptional standard of craftsmanship;
* Historic interest: as the first example of Douglas using timber as a structural material for an architectural style where it was more commonly applied as a surface decoration;
* Intactness: its plan form is unaltered and the internal decorative scheme is remarkably intact with original joinery, and fixtures and fittings throughout.

History

Rowden Abbey was built in 1881 for Henry J Bailey, who is known for helping to revive the Hereford breed of cattle. Designed by the architect John Douglas, it is an example of a detached house in the Domestic Revival style. It is named after the C16 moated house to the east, which was thought to have incorporated the remains of a C13 abbey. This house was demolished in the late C18.

Douglas (1830-1911) was articled to Edmund Sharpe & Edward Graham Paley of Lancaster before setting up his own practice in Chester by 1860. His architecture evolved alongside current architectural trends and he produced work which gave a highly personalised interpretation of the Gothic, Vernacular and Domestic Revival styles. In 1884, Douglas went into partnership with Daniel Porter Fordham, and then, following Fordham’s retirement in 1897, Charles Howard Minshall.

Details

House, built in 1881 to a design by John Douglas in the Domestic Revival style for Henry Bailey. The ancillary building attached to the north elevation is excluded.

MATERIALS: constructed of oak timber-frame, probably with a brick backing, on a coursed rock-faced stone plinth with red sandstone coping stones. The brick infill panels are cement rendered and painted white. It has a plain clay tile roof and tall red brick chimney stacks.

PLAN: a roughly L-shaped plan, with the main block (south) and service wing (north) at right angles to each other forming a rear courtyard. The building is of two storeys with a small cellar beneath the centre of the building, and attic.

EXTERIOR: the entrance and garden elevations are principally of close studding with a mid-rail and some decorative panels to the first floor; the rear elevation is of square panelling, with some large rectangular panels. The entrance (west) elevation has an asymmetrical composition. The three-bay service wing to the left is set back from the main range, and has a pitched roof with axial stack. To the ground floor is an open lobby leading to a moulded plank entrance door with four-centred arched head, and to the right are two mullioned and transomed windows with depressed ogee heads. The first floor has three mullioned windows, divided by decorative panels of tension braces arranged in a diamond shape. The three-bay block of the main range to the right has outward-thrusting gabled bays either side of the central bay and is beneath a hipped roof with axial stack. The gabled bay to the left forms the principal entrance comprising an oak plank door with applied fillets set within a four-centred arched doorway with a colonnette to either side with decorative carving twisting around the shaft. To the lintel above is the inscription ‘May friends coming through / Be many and true’. The first-floor is jettied to all three sides and is carried on curved brackets, with a carved cow’s head to each of the two dragon posts. Beneath the four-light mullioned window are ornamental concave lozenges, and to the collar of the gable above is carved the date, 1881, and the initials of the owner. The collar, bargeboards and central vertical strut to the gable are heavily carved with cusped ornamentation. The wider gabled bay to the right is set slightly back from the entrance bay and has a canted, five-light bay window with cusped ogee heads to each floor. The ground floor window has stained glass to the upper lights. The first floor window is jettied with concave lozenges beneath and a jettied gable above. The collar and barge boards are carved with cusped decoration. The garden elevation (south) is arranged as two blocks. The left hand block is set-forward and has a hipped roof with a dormer window, through which runs an axial brick chimney stack. The right hand block has a pitched roof with ridge stack and external gable end stack to the east return. The first floor of both blocks is jettied, supported on canted bay windows with cusped ogee heads and stained glass to the upper lights (each incorporating a single door to the garden) and brackets on decorative octagonal colonnettes with the same decorative carving as those to the entrance bay, and broach stops to the base. The main first-floor windows have corbels beneath the cill. The rear (north and east) elevation of the main block has timber mullioned windows with square heads. In the mid-C20 the ground floor twelve-light window to the rear of the main block had been adapted to form a pair of doors, beneath the stained glass upper lights. It is clear from the scars to the building fabric, that the rubble stone plinth and coping stone beneath the window is a repair, as is the cill beam and lower lights. To the angle of the rear elevation is the gabled bay of the stairwell, with stair window. The north elevation of the service wing is highly ornamental with square panelling to the ground floor, rectangular panels to the first floor with cusped heads, and decorative framing to the gable with an attic window above. There is a jettied bay to the first floor with mono-pitched roof.

INTERIOR: the main entrance door leads to a small brick and timber lobby giving on to the oak panelled entrance hall with stone fireplace and a two-bay, slender timber arcade, with pies to the spandrels, leading to the stairwell. The ceiling is of square panels with timber ribs. To the south side of the hall is the drawing room with dual-aspect bay windows, round-arched niches to the walls and a plastered ceiling with geometric design. It has a marble and tiled fireplace with cast-iron grate with timber chimneypiece carved with floral motifs to the overmantel. The dining room has an oak wainscot with incorporated fluted Doric pilasters with corbels above supporting the heavily-moulded cross-axial oak ceiling beams. These and the narrower pilasters above the panelling have oak spandrels between them and the moulded cornice above, giving an arcaded effect to the walls. The marble fireplace has a heavily-moulded timber chimneypiece. Above the two doorcases is a Caernarvon-shaped pediment, and the square-panelled ceiling is similar to that in the hall. The library has fitted shelves with cupboards beneath, but do not exhibit the same quality as the joinery in the rest of the house and may be a later insertion. The billiard room to the east end of the main wing has an oak wainscot and includes console brackets with foliate carving to either side of the windows and the fireplace. The inglenook fireplace has a four-centred arched stone surround with foliate carved label stops and inset stone fireplace. The north mullioned and transomed window, and panelling beneath, has been restored. The corridor of the service wing has a tiled floor laid in a geometric pattern and glazed buff and brown brick walls. It retains the original bell system, as well as the later electrified system, and in each of the principal rooms is the corresponding bell push. The fireplaces to three of the service rooms are of glazed brick. The former office has oak wainscot and a fitted dresser and safe. The fireplace has been removed and replaced with a C20 timber fireplace. A dogleg staircase is at the south end of the service corridor, beneath which is the staircase to the small cellar. The principal, open-well staircase is adjacent, and has square newel posts with incised linear ornament and ball finials, and heavily turned bobbin-style balusters and a moulded handrail. The balustrade continues around the stairwell creating a gallery with a three-bay arcade to the west side supported on timber posts with decorative spandrels and open panels above with decorative heads. The mullioned and transomed stair window has leaded and stained glass, with three lights to the bottom, and five lights to the middle and top section. The main wing has five bedrooms, each with a tiled and/or marble fireplace and cast-iron grate with a timber chimneypiece which includes a four-panelled overmantel. The master bedroom has a bay window with built-in cupboards to the returns, and an en-suite bathroom with fitted linen cupboard to one end. There are an additional five bedrooms to the north range, one of which has the same style fireplace as the principal bedrooms; three others have cast iron fireplaces. The linen room retains its fitted linen cupboard. The service stair provides access to the attic. Throughout the interior are panelled doors, brass light fittings and switches, wooden and brass door handles with brass back plates and wrought iron window catches.

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the attached L-shaped ancillary building to the north is not of special architectural or historic interest and is not included in the listing.

Sources

Books and journals
Hubbard, E, The Work of John Douglas, (2013), 109, 132, 134, 147, 158, 162, 251
Brooks, A, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Herefordshire, (2012), 151

Websites
Douglas, John (1830-1911), architect by Peter Howell, accessed 13 July 2015 from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/52372
Rowden Abbey, accessed 14 September 2015 from http://archiseek.com/2009/1881-rowden-abbey-herefordshire

Other
Sales particulars (1976-7), Russell, Baldwin & Bright
Sales particulars (2015) Strutt & Parker
Rowden Abbey Landscape Park (SMR Number: 31193), Herefordshire Council
Rowden Abbey (SMR Number: 6672), Herefordshire Council

End of official list entry

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