Description

LAVANT

1080/0/10069 Little Manor (formerly The Small House)
11-AUG-06

II
House. Designed by E S Prior in 1909 and completed in 1912 for a Mr Peyton Mackeson. Built in Arts and Crafts style.

MATERIALS: Constructed of local knapped flint with brown brick plinth in Sussex bond and red brick dressings with a hipped tiled roof and four tall diagonally-placed red brick chimneystacks. The first floor is of fire resistant pre-cast concrete.

PLAN: One storey and attics but two storeys to the south west side with mainly irregular fenestration. Wooden mullioned or mullioned and transomed casement windows. Entrance front to the north east with principal rooms facing south west and service wing to the north west forming an L-wing. On the ground floor the Sitting Room was designed to spread across all three bays of the garden front, flanked by recessed Study and Dining Room behind two loggias with sleeping balconies on the first floor (originally designed with Venetian blinds for privacy), and the upper floor was designed with dressing rooms behind the sleeping platforms, three bedrooms and two servants bedrooms to the rear.

EXTERIOR: The north east or entrance front is asymmetrical and L-shaped. To the east is a projecting flint porch with brick bands and dressings and a small diamond-shaped window and round-headed brick arch below with studded plank door and curved recess. To the left of this the roof slopes to the ground floor with a single-light casement. To the right is a four-light dormer and the ground floor has three round-headed arches to the ground floor with one two-light and two four-light casements. The north west L-wing or service wing has a four-light dormer and tall kitchen casement flanked by smaller windows, originally to store, china and larder windows.
The south east elevation has a flat-roofed dormer, a three-light casement to the first floor and a round-headed brick arch with keystone to the ground floor with three-light mullioned and transomed casement and a two-light casement to the right.
The south west or garden front is of three bays with cambered headed four-light casements to the first floor set in cambered brick arches and the ground floor has flat-arched three-light mullioned and transomed casements set within round-headed arches with keystones. On each end the first floor rooms have square sleeping platforms with wooden balustrading with chamfered wooden piers, supported on circular brick columns with square stone capitals and half-columns to the sides. The western balcony has a two-light window and door to the upper level and two French windows with rectangular fanlights below. The eastern balcony retains the wooden balustrading but both levels have been enclosed in the late C20, in tilework to the first floor and in brickwork below, reusing an original French window and casement window.
The north west elevation has a partially projecting tall chimneystack with bands of red and brown brick to the lower part. The first floor has three dormer windows, the central one hipped, the end ones flat-roofed. The ground floor has a three-light mullioned and transomed window set in a round-headed brick arch with keystone and two two-light mullioned and transomed windows.
The north eastern front to the service wing has a recessed centre to the former scullery and three small casement windows and two plank doors, formerly into the wood and coal stores.
The former stable and garage wing has been altered and is not of special interest.

INTERIOR: The ground floor of the main house has a north eastern corridor with three rooms opening off to the south west, originally Study, Sitting Room and Dining Room. The corridor has a black and white stone quarry chequerwork floor thought to have been reclaimed from elsewhere, a series of original six-panelled oak doors and angled door to the west with cambered fanlightleading to the service end. To the east is a closed string dogleg staircase with square fretwork pattern to the balustrade and square newel posts with carved finials. The Sitting Room, also known as the Oak Room, has a solid oak ceiling with axial beams, square floor joists, boarding and flat cornice. The eastern end has a wooden fireplace with panel of carved shells, paterae, pilasters and green marble interior which is probably not original. The eastern third of the Oak Room has been partitioned in the late C20 to form an additional room. The service end retains the servants bells and winder service staircase.

HISTORY: The original name of the building was "The Small House". It was built on land owned by the Goodwood estate by the architect E S Prior (1852-1932) who was commissioned in 1909 to build the house by Mr Peyton Mackeson, a past Mayor of Chichester. Prior was articled to R Norman Shaw in 1874 and was a founder member and Master, in 1906, of the Art Worker's Guild and Secretary of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society (1902-17). Prior was particularly noted for a series of X-shaped or "Butterfly plan" houses including "The Barn", Exmouth and "Voewood" at Holt in Norfolk. However, his commissions included many churches and institutional buildings and "The Small House" was Prior's penultimate house commission.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: "Little Manor" is a substantially intact Arts and Crafts style house of 1909 built by E S Prior for Mr Peyton Mackeson, a past Mayor of Chichester. It is built of local knapped flint and good quality brickwork with interesting sleeping balconies to the south west. The interior has an unusual oak ceiling to the Sitting Room and the staircase is an example of Arts and Crafts detailing but the first floor is constructed of pre-cast concrete for its fire resistant properties. As a little altered mature work by a distinguished architect "Little Manor" merits listing at grade II.

SOURCES:
Lawrence Weaver "Small Country Houses of Today" Second Series. Country Life 1919.
Nairn and Pevsner "Buildings of England. Sussex". 1965. p260.
A Stuart Gray "Edwardian Architecture" 1985. P 296.
Amanda Laws "Understanding Small Period Houses". 2003.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671091

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

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  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
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  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)