Summary
Lord Wandsworth College schoolmaster’s house and associated outbuildings, 1914-1915, by Reginald Blomfield.
Reasons for Designation
Shepewood House and its associated garden structures at Lord Wandsworth College are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a restrained and carefully proportioned house design by Reginald Blomfield, a leading architect of the period;
Historic interest:
* as a well-preserved, early component of an important educational trust focussed on agricultural training, established as a legacy of the Liberal politician and philanthropist Sydney James Stern, Baron Wandsworth (1844-1912);
Group value:
* with the other early Lord Wandsworth College buildings, particularly the neighbouring lodge house and gates also by Blomfield. The buildings throughout the estate have a strong collective value, demonstrating careful planning by Blomfield and Dawber, manifest in the varied yet harmonious arrangement of distinguished buildings which draw on vernacular and classical traditions.
History
Lord Wandsworth College was established with money left by Sydney James Stern, Baron Wandsworth (1844-1912), a banker and MP who was raised to the peerage in 1895. As a Liberal MP for the rural Suffolk constituency of Stowmarket, Stern had taken an interest in agricultural affairs and had been committed to improving the living conditions of the rural poor, introducing three Bills on Better Housing of the Working Classes in Rural Districts in the 1890s. Upon his death in 1912, the majority of his £1.25 million fortune was allocated for a residential institution for the benefit of the rural poor, where ‘scientific and practical training will be given in every branch connected with Agriculture’ (quoted in Podger, pp16-17). In accordance with the stipulations set out in the bequest, a committee formed of various experts in the fields of agricultural management, finance and education was established to oversee the foundation and guide its development. The initial question of the site for the ‘Lord Wandsworth Orphanage’, as it was originally termed, was considered by the Trust in 1913. The Long Sutton estate was chosen from a shortlist in August and acquired in October the same year. At the time of purchase the site was comprised of 950 acres of arable land, with the main Sutton House and its associated farm buildings situated to the south and Hyde Farm and its various buildings set to the west. Bennet’s Field, which occupied the main right of way to Hyde Farm, was subsequently purchased in October 1917. The estate was reported to be in poor condition in 1913, with 17 existing cottages on the estate found to be ‘unfit for human habitation’ and the land and hedges in a ‘dreadful condition’ (Kinney, p43); the state of Long Sutton at this stage reflecting the decades of depression that had severely affected agriculture across the country.
The Lord Wandsworth Foundation was originally conceived along the lines of a model village, with the intention being that small groups of children would reside in cottages overseen by a housemaster and be taught on the farm and at a central school house. Trustees met in January 1914 to consider the layout of the site and instigate an initial building programme. Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942) was appointed to advise the Trust and was given responsibility for selecting an architect to create plans for new buildings under his direction. The architect that Blomfield recommended to the Trust, selected in July 1914 from a field of five candidates, was Guy Dawber (1861-1938); a former President of the Architectural Association, principally known for his designs for many small country houses and writings on vernacular architecture. The earliest work on the estate was divided, apparently with ‘some friction’, between the two architects (Podger, p20). Blomfield assumed responsibility for the lodge and main entrance gates, for which plans were produced in July 1914. In the same year Blomfield also designed Shepewood House (originally the assistant manager’s residence, later the Warden’s house) and several estate cottages. Additionally, in collaboration with C S Orwin (Director of the Institute for Agricultural Economics at Oxford), he produced plans for the extensive Hyde Farm buildings to the west of the site. Dawber’s early work included a power house and laundry block, designs being produced in February 1915, along with a series of cottages completed by October 1916. Plans for a grand range of school buildings produced by Dawber, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915, were interrupted by the outbreak of war with only the Administration and Engineering Blocks completed. Further buildings were constructed to Dawber's designs into the 1920s, including School House and Junior House.
As one of the first new building schemes for the Lord Wandsworth Foundation, Shepewood House, along with the Queen Anne lodge house and Edwardian Baroque gates, set the architectural tone for the rest of the estate. Shepewood House is recorded to have been designed by Blomfield; plans are not known to survive but designs appear to have been produced as part of the earliest phase of Blomfield’s work for the Trust undertaken in July 1914. Construction was noted to be underway in February 1915 (Podger, p18) and was completed by September 1915, at which time the buildings are shown as complete in a series photographs held in the Historic England Archives. Although Shepewood House was specifically designed to serve as the residence for an assistant manager and family, the outbreak of war did not make it possible to make an appointment and this, combined with the stalling of other building projects on the estate, required the house to be used for students and staff in the early years of the college’s existence. Shepewood House formally became the warden’s residence in 1930, when Colonel Little was appointed to the position, following the completion of both Senior and Junior House in 1929.
The outline of the house and its outbuildings changed relatively little over the course of the C20, with the most notable alteration being the demolition of an early (though not original) conservatory built against to the east end of the south elevation (this having been shown in archive images of the house, but not in the earliest photographs of September 1915). Some later modifications have been made to the house, with most original windows having been replaced in recent years and two bathrooms added at first-floor level.
Details
Lord Wandsworth College schoolmaster’s house and associated outbuildings, 1914-1915, by Reginald Blomfield.
MATERIALS: red brick with stone dressings, render, and clay roof tiles.
PLAN: broadly rectangular plan arranged over two storeys with an attic level. The ground floor opens to an entrance hall leading to a drawing room, dining room, study and central staircase. A kitchen and an associated breakfast room occupy the west range of the house. Projecting out from the west side of the house, and accessed separately, are a pantry and utility room (north side) and store and laundry blocks (south) that enclose a small service yard that is screened from the garden to the south by a wall connecting to the western garage and workshop. The upper floor and attic both have central landings leading to four bedrooms with WCs set to the west of the stairs.
The main approach to the house from White Hill road is via a drive that arcs around to the house from the north-east side. The gardens surround the house to the south and east.
EXTERIOR: the principal elevation is to the north, informally arranged in a restrained Queen Anne style with a projecting stair tower with a hipped roof off-set to the west. The tower is of rendered brick with quoined corners above the entrance, which has a part-glazed door with leaded margin lights beneath a conch shell hood set on scroll brackets. Above, there is a large, central, leaded-light window to the stairs with a lozenge panel motif set below. The tower is flanked by brick bays, two to the east with irregularly-spaced windows beneath a hipped dormer, and a single bay to the west with narrow window openings. The western service range steps down a storey, with the hipped-roof kitchen block standing proud of the rest of the north elevation, positioned in alignment with the stair tower. The simple hipped-roof service ranges to the north and south are utilitarian in character. The north range has evenly-spaced windows to its north elevation and a combination of small windows and simple plank-and-batten doors facing into the service yard. The south range has matching plank-and-batten doors to the north with an unbroken brick elevation to the south which is continued by the screening wall to the west. The west end of this range has a tall chimney rising from its north elevation.
The south elevation to the garden is more formally arranged than the north. This is comprised of three evenly-spaced rendered window bays standing just proud of the rest of the brick elevation, which is punctuated by narrow windows to both storeys. Between the lower and upper windows of each of the projecting bays there is a recurring lozenge motif and, to the south roof pitch above, the hipped dormers are positioned in alignment, these divided by a pair of tall brick stacks to the ridge. The east elevation, which looks out onto a formal path across the garden, has a double-height canted bay window projection to its south side and simple casements to the north. A pair of hipped dormers to the east pitch of the roof are divided by a single tall brick stack. The windows throughout, with the exception of those to the stair tower, are later replacements.
INTERIOR: the arrangement of the interior of the house has been little altered since completion in 1915, with the three principal rooms to the ground floor and the four bedrooms to each of the upper floors all accessed from a central hallway, as originally configured. The main north entrance leads through to a lobby which has hexagonal red floor tiles with a secondary door with a leaded-glazed section through to the entrance hall. The central set of dog-leg stairs are original, with wooden fretwork to the balusters and brass finials to the newel posts. The drawing room and dining room retain moulded timber fire surrounds (with later insets), wide fielded-panelled doors with brass furnishings, built-in cupboards, skirting, moulded cornices and window and door architraves. The study has the same range of fittings, except with a smaller fireplace with glazed cheek and floor tiles and a small cast-iron coal grate.
At first-floor level, the bedrooms also retain original doors with brass furnishings, built-in cupboards, skirting, and window and door architraves. The fireplaces in these rooms have moulded wooden surrounds and cast-iron coal grates bordered with glazed cheek tiles (matching the type in the study below). To the second floor there are further original doors with brass furnishings, built-in cupboards, skirting, and window and door architraves, although the surviving fireplaces to these bedrooms are of a different form; with lobed, moulded surrounds with a central rosette motif above the opening. Additionally, to this upper level, the timber roof structure is visible in each of the bedrooms, with original iron strapwork to the joins of the posts and braces.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: to the garden there is a formal pathway leading to the east, this marked by a pair of stone piers with orb finials (positioned between the house and the eastern end of the plot). The path terminates at a small brick outbuilding to the east side of the garden, which aligns with an enclosed, narrow eastern section of the garden with a north-south pathway. This leads through a gateway with a pair of stone piers with orb finials and an ornamented cast-iron gate to a circular pond with a central bowl fountain. The outbuilding is divided into two sections internally. The southern side forms a store area, whilst the north appears to have been arranged and furnished as children’s play room. This has miniature-scale fielded panelling and a rubble stone fireplace to the south wall; this with a relief-carved centrepiece featuring a fox. Above the low-set panelling the walls have applied brick panels in alternating regular and chevron form. The entrance to the room is from the west, through a rustic oak door with vertical strips of iron bolt riveting and a multi-paned mottled glazed section above. To the north is a leaded-glazed casement window with wrought-iron latches.
On the opposing side of the site (facing the western service yard) is a brick garage which has a hipped roof and modern shutter. Abutting this, to the north, is a flat-roofed brick workshop block.
