Description

GODALMING ASHSTEAD LANE
SU 9642 SE
(south side, off)
17/4
Ladywell Convent
GV
II

House, now convent. 1910 by Sir Guy Dawber for Major-General D A Scott; con-
verted to convent 1956; additions 1960s by G Clay and partners. Bargate rubble-
stone with red-brick dressings; plain tile roof. U-shaped plan open at front.
7-bay spine range, of 1 storey with attic at front, 2 storeys at rear, having
central 2-storey porch and 2-storey stair towers in angles with wings which
project from end bays. Right wing is of 1 storey with attic, 2 bays; left wing
of 2 storeys with attic, 3 bays, with 4th, single-storey, bay, and 10-bay 1960s
wing extension. Projecting to left from left end of main range is 1960s wing
extension. Projecting to rear right corner is 1960s U-shaped cloister, open at
front, with chapel in spine range; from its right projects another wing, not of
special interest. In Jacobean style, having double-chamfered mullion windows
with king-mullions, leaded lights and dripmoulds; brick eaves bands, the towers
with modillions; wooden gutters and downpipes; metalled ball finials; tall
chimneys with ribs and cornices. Entrance front: porch: studded wooden door of
4 raised and moulded panels with large iron knocker having inner wood architrave
with brattished top, heavily-moulded brick outer architrave with pilaster-
corbels supporting cornice, and segmental pediment broken by swagged cartouche
surmounted by a deer; pedimented 2-light window over door; crow-stepped gable;
1-light windows to returns. Flanking porch are 8-light windows and 3-light
dormers under swept hipped roofs. Towers have 2-light windows, right tower with
double-transomed stair window to front and single-transomed window to left
return; left tower with 3-light window to ground floor, front. A cross-ridge
stack to main range behind each tower. Right wing: 6-light window with tran-
somed 4-light window above to gable end; 2-light window and 2-light dormer to
left return. Left wing, from left: single-storey end bay with 4-light window
and pyramidal roof; 4-light window to each floor; 2-light window to ground
floor, 1st floor blind and rising into gable with 2-light attic window; 2-light
window with 4-light window over and 2-light dormer. External triple-flued stack
at left end; 1960s wing extension, set back, in same style with near-central
tower. 1960s cloisters in similar style, the chapel tall with tall window,
crow-stepped gable and octagonal, tile-hung, clock and bell-tower. Garden front
(rear): symmetrical, having central external stack with dated 1st floor sundial
with inscribed stone plaque beneath, and tripled diagonally-set flues; flanking
4-light windows, transomed on ground floor; next bays gabled with windows of 6
lights to ground floor, 4 lights above, all transomed, left bay with cross-
window to inner return, right bay with arched doorway; outer bays have windows
of 3 transomed lights to ground floor and 4 lights above, ground floor of left
bay masked by cloister addition. Set back on right are 2 further bays having
windows of 4 and 2 lights to ground floor and 4 lights above; further right is
1960s wing extension, in keeping. Interior: principal rooms face onto the
garden, with corridor along front. Contemporary interiors survive including:
tiled fireplaces, some with decorative surrounds; panelled central ground-floor
room with large scantling, elaborately stopped beams, and double-doors into
rooms at either end which have barrel-vaulted ceilings with plastered, leaf-
decorated ribs; former billiard room in right wing has strawberry-decorated
ceiling frieze and large embrasure flanked by panelled pilasters with obelisk
finials; main stair has moulded, square-section balusters, and finials to
newels; 1st floor rooms retain tiled fireplaces and tiled fireplaces and tiled
window sills. The house was originally called Tensley Court. C Aslett, The
Last Country Houses.

Listing NGR: SU9671542348

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26296619

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
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings