School House, Lord Wandsworth College

Summary

Boarding house at Lord Wandsworth College, 1927-1929 by Guy Dawber.

Reasons for Designation

School House at Lord Wandsworth College is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a varied, inventive, and ambitious interpretation of the prevalent Neo-Georgian style of the period, built to the designs of Guy Dawber, a leading architect of the period;

Historic interest:

* as a well-preserved 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 adjacent core college buildings also by Dawber. 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 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.

Following the War, the Trust fell back on a more modest scheme of development. The shortage of labour and heightened building costs made returning to Dawber’s 1915 plans impracticable and, in March 1921, the Trust dispensed of his services. Instead, a campaign of building simple cottages was embarked upon (planned to be built in phases to the designs of H P G Maulle), partly in accordance with the stipulations of the bequest which set out this favoured model of development, but also undoubtedly influenced by the need for economy at this time. This piecemeal approach was however to be short-lived. In 1922, the appointment of the first Warden, Colonel William Julyan, brought about a more ambitious programme of works. Under Julyan’s tenure (1922-30) there was a focus on formalising the Foundation’s educational programme and arranging the college along more conventional lines; an approach influenced by Julyan’s own time at Oxford and training in Agricultural Law at Gray’s Inn. Julyan held reservations about the Trust’s existing arrangement of housing boys in separate cottages, describing the conditions as ‘Spartan in the extreme’ and claiming the system was impractical owing to the lack of suitable housemasters. Consequently, from 1923, a return to an arrangement along the lines of Dawber’s 1915 plans, albeit in a scaled-back manner, was advocated. Dawber was reappointed and initially plans were produced in for a dining hall in May 1925 which was to serve as a social centre for the college (meals having previously been taken in individual cottages). This was completed in 1926 and its design followed the form of his earlier Administration Block, building on the main axis of the earlier masterplan, thus giving some order and balance to the site arrangement. Subsequent proposals for a large hall and dedicated library were ruled out by the Trust, but plans by Dawber of June 1926 for classrooms and recreation rooms (the present library block) were realised, as were plans for Senior (now School) House (first signed September 1926 and revised January 1927) and Junior House, to the west of the site (April 1928), which together form the present core grouping of college buildings.

The design for Junior House, along with other work by Dawber in the latter half of the 1920s, marked the transition of the Lord Wandsworth Foundation from a residential institution with scattered cottages based loosely on the model village principles of the later C19, towards a more conventional public school with boarding houses and communal facilities. In contrast to early work for the Trust under the direction of Blomfield, a freer approach to the Trust’s established Neo-Georgian style is expressed in Dawber’s later work, with eclectic influences demonstrated by the French mansard and the paired Tudoresque chimney stacks to the principal corner entrance to School House. The original plans of September 1926 were superseded by a more extensive revised scheme of January the following year in which a rear range was added to create a courtyard behind the principal frontage. Building was complete by 1929 and the new boarding house was published in the Architect and Building News, which celebrated the arrangement of the building stating that the plans represented ‘the latest ideas in their class’ (15 November 1929, p597). Since completion there have been some minor modifications to the building, including the enclosure of the eastern access to the courtyard in order to extend the earlier boot room and form an additional dormitory; for which plans were produced by M S Sawyer and Sons in June 1950.

Details

Boarding house, 1927-1929 by Guy Dawber.

MATERIALS: walls constructed of red brick, laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and clay tile roof.

PLAN: Y-shaped plan with courtyard to the east. The building is set over two storeys with the main entrance in the centre and corridors leading off into the wings of the building with communal spaces at ground-floor level and dormitories and washing areas on the second floor. Two subsidiary single-storey blocks are situated on the north side of the building, which are used as store rooms.

EXTERIOR: the south-west elevation forms the main entrance to the house, which is set at the centre of the Y-shape plan. The central entrance consists of a stone portico supported by two pairs of circular columns and two polygonal columns at either end, which turn the corner of the portico. Above the portico’s plain entablature is a stone balustrade. Underneath the portico is the main entrance, flanked on either side by a sash window. The central double-door entrance is formed of wooden three panelled doors set underneath a leaded window formed of interlocking circles. A dentilated stone architrave runs continuously.

Above the balustrade is a series of three sash windows at the second-floor level with a French mansard roof above. Three dormer windows punctuate the roof, with the central window encased in a stone scrolled and shouldered architrave and pediment, which continues along the length of the roof below the windows as a small parapet. On either side of this main central range are two wings with hipped roofs. These are both formed of two storeys with five bays. Each bay has a sash window to both storeys; set under segmental brick arches and stone keystones at the ground-floor level. The storeys are divided by a stone string course, and the corners of the building are emphasised by brick quoins. On either side of the main entrance at roof level are two brick chimney stacks.

The eastern elevation follows the return of this range and continues the central range’s detailing, with three sash windows at ground level with segmental brick arches and stone keystones and two sash windows surrounding an oculus on the second floor.

The northern elevation is less ornate, with the single-storey ranges at either end forming utilitarian entrances to the former boot room and store. These have been modified, with later windows of 1950 inserted in some cases. Above these elements is the second storey of the main building, which is punctuated by a series of plainer sash windows. In the centre of the elevation is the projecting stair tower, which is illuminated by a series of three large sash windows. A secondary door, which formerly gave direct access to the boot and changing rooms, sits to the east of the stair tower. The door is a later replacement and sits underneath a series of four concentric segmental arches.

The southern and western elevations are relatively plain, with the main ranges recessed to form a small quadrangle around the central courtyard. The detailing seen on the main south-west elevation continues into these elevations, with sash windows punctuated with oculi and a stone string course all repeated.

INTERIOR: internally the plan form of rooms off the main corridors leading away from the central staircase remains largely unaltered. The dormitories, washing areas on the first floor and common rooms at ground floor have been modernised but some retain original features, particularly at ground-floor level, and the building retains many of its fielded-panel doors, architraves and skirting boards.

The building is accessed via the main entrance in the south-west elevation through a secondary set of double wood and glazed doors which lead directly into the hall and main staircase, set around a central well. The architraves around the doorways set off the main staircase are unusual and are wider than the rest throughout the building with a faceted arched form featured here. The stair is of stone with iron balusters and a raised wooden handrail. Set off this central stair well there are long corridors which lead to large common rooms and smaller sitting rooms. These smaller rooms on either side of the main entrance were originally the rooms for the matron and wardens; these retain modest fireplaces, picture rails and built-in cupboards.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bullen, M, Crook, J, Hubbuck, R, , , The Buildings of England: Hampshire: Winchester and the North, (2010), 384-385
The Lord Wandsworth Agricultural College in The Architect and Building News, (15 November 1929), 597-602
Fryer, W L, The Lord Wandsworth Foundation 1912-1968, (1972)
Podger, Hugh, The History of the Lord Wandsworth Foundation and College 1912-2009, (2009)
Little, W B, The Early Years at Long Sutton in The Sower, (1933), 7-13
Kinney, L, The Long Sutton Estate, December 1913 in The Sternian, Vol. 28, (1986), 42-46

Other
Long Sutton tour notes for the Victorian Society (3 June 1989), Roderick Gradidge and David Prout: Hampshire Record Office, reference 641799/B178/24

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