Description

SU 79 SW
537/3/10006

WATLINGTON
B480
(East side, off)
Howe Combe

II

Small country house. Dated 1908. By T Frank Green. Flint with red brick dressings, hipped plain tile roof. Central entrance hall flanked by dining- and sitting-rooms served by rear corridor; stair wing to rear right; service wing to rear left leading through to service courtyard. In Arts and Crafts style with irregular elevations. Brick plinth, rusticated quoins, bands, surrounds and chimney caps; decorative use made of tile-on-edge; wooden leaded casement windows, transomed on ground floor; 3-light dormers with hipped roofs and tile-hung cheeks; decorative dated hoppers to rainwater pipes. 2 storeys and attic. Entrance, south-west, elevation: irregular 2:1:2 bays. Near-central gabled 2-storey porch: brick step up to round-arched double-door with moulded panels and decorative furniture; tile imposts and voussoirs to stepped brick arch; flanking gableted pilasters supporting tiled hood; 3-light window above with keyed brick arch all in recessed panel; tiles in gable read : AD 1908 AHD & ASD. To right of porch, two 2-light windows on each floor and one dormer to roof. To left, a 2-light window, two 1-light windows above and one dormer. On their left, a decorative external stack, semi-octagonal on plan, with tiled off-sets, triangular-section pilasters with attached brick finials, 3 clay pots. To left again, blind bay under sloping roof. Oversailing roof with exposed rafter feet; ridge stack to right of porch. Left return: 1:3:1:1 bays. The 3-bay section has 2-light windows, a single dormer, and broad cross-ridge stack on left ; the flanking bays are single-storeyed under cat-slide roofs each with a 1-light window. The wider right-hand bay projects under a hipped roof and has a 2-storey 5-light bow window with deep cornice and flat roof. Projecting from this elevation on the left is the south-west side of the service court-yard: single-storeyed with two 2-light hipped dormers. Right return: on left, 2-bay return of main range has 2-storey 5-light bow window to left and recessed chimney bay on right with stack corbelled out on 1st floor. The return of this has 2 bays under half-hipped roof with small 3-light attic window, the left bay having two 1-light windows to ground floor and a 3-light window above, all in a round-arched recess; the right bay is a curved stair bay with a dominating 7-light double-transomed window with tile off-set below and conical roof over. Service wing has 1-light 1st-floor windows, two dormers, and is fronted by 7-bay colonnade linking it to the service court-yard range. The colonnade had wooden posts arch-braced to wall-plate, pent tile roof, herring-bone brick paving, and decorative open-work gable to right bay which has board door through to service court-yard and bell (2 left bays now glazed to form part of kitchen). The service range continues to right, having board doors and small-pane windows; 2 gabled projections (C20 century infill between). Within service court-yard is wooden colonnade, partly infilled C20, fronting various outbuildings with board doors and small-pane windows; at south-west corner is decorative iron double gate hung from brick pilasters. INTERIOR: largely unaltered, with original woodwork including skirting boards, picture rails and cornices; panelled doors with decorative iron-ware, window seats, cupboards and closets; fireplaces with glazed brick surrounds and decorative architraves; decorative iron catches to windows. The dining- and sitting-rooms have moulded coffered ceilings, wide ingle-nook style fireplaces with decorative iron stoves. The dining-room has elaborate buffet and cupboards; the sitting-room a peacock tile frieze to fireplace and pilastered surround and ingle-seats. Entrance hall has decorative iron chandelier and stencilled compass to ceiling. Stair: dog-leg with landing in window, turned newels, moulded hand-rail, decorative iron lantern. 1st floor: linen cupboard off corridor. Numerous closets with brass hooks and rails and vented doors; pilastered surrounds to windows in rear corridor.

Listing NGR: SU7000492166

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26282989

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper