Description

BETCHWORTH C.P. THE STREET
TQ 24NW
(West Side)
6/29 Betchworth House
11/11/66
GV II*

Country House. Late C17, cupola dated 1675, erected by the Freeman Family, clad
to front in C18, and extended to rear in early C19, probably by T. Grundy Snr.
in 1808. Red brick cladding, stucco on rear extensions, hipped plain tiled roof
to front, slate roofs with deep eaves on rear ranges. Two storeys over basement
with parapet obscuring double roof. Square stacks to left and right. Five bay
symmetrical front with offset plinth and rusticated quoins to angle piers.
Original Early C18, 12-pane glazing-bar sash windows, five on first floor and
four below, under gauged brick heads. Worn central, pedimented, Mersham stone,
Gibbs-style door surround with pulvinated frieze and rusticated, arched, surround.
Door originally of 6-fielded panels with fanlight over, approached up steps of
sedan type with iron hand-rail and cellar entrance between the two flights.
Twisted standards to ends of railings under spherical finials. Four cambered-
head casement windows in cellar. Central octagonal cupola with boarded plinth
containing clock face on entrance side, open and arcaded above with Doric pilasters
and keyed arches. Triglyph frieze above under ogee-domed lead roof with spherical
weathervane finials. Left hand return front:- Four windows across, two on each
floor to right blocked. Two square first floor sashes and two round-headed, late
C18 glazing-bar sashes below. C19 range to left:- two storeys on rising ground,
with eaves cornice. Three 12-pane, glazing bar sashes on first and ground floors.
Tripartite first floor glazing-bar sash window to left over two ground floor, 15-
pane, glazing-bar sashes. Further Cl9 range then projecting, three bays deep to
left, all but one window on return wall blocked. Seven bays across front with
centre three in shallow break. Plat band over ground floor and keyed heads to
ground floor sashes. Quoined and rusticated angles. Flat roofed balustraded
projection to ground floor centre range with diamond tracery and roundels to
standards. Four 15-pane, glazing-bar sashes across under keystoned heads. Rear:-
Single bay projection to right with plinth and rusticated angles. Three bay range
to centre with two blocked first floor windows and Doric portico across the ground
floor with two columns and pilaster responds. Arched opening to left side of porch
now blocked and single door of six fielded panels. Further range set back to left.
Main entrance range to west with recessed portico and door of 6 fielded panels.
Iron half-oval balconies to first floor windows.
Interiors:- Window shutters survive. Dentilled cornices in some ground floor
rooms, marble columns to rear room.
In neglected condition at time of resurvey.

PEVSNER: BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND, SURREY (1971) p.110.

Listing NGR: TQ2112049552

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547619

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

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)