Description

SO 89 SE
5/164
16.6.53

WOMBOURNE C.P.
WODEHOUSE LANE (south side)
The Wodehouse

GV
II*

Small country house. C14 core with C17 additions and C18 internal refittings;
remodelled 1872-3 by C.F. Bodley; alterations and additions of 1895-7 by
C.R. Ashbee and of 1912 by J.K.H.E. Lavender of Wolverhampton. Timber
framed core and billiard room of 1895-7, otherwise rendered brick; plain
tile roofs; brick stacks. Irregular E-plan; principal alignment roughly
east-west facing south, incorporating the hall range and parlour end of
a C14 house; porch and flanking wings to the south front on a north-south
alignment, the former is by Bodley, the latter are probably C17; Ashbee
added a chapel on the same alignment to the south-east angle and a billiard
room at the north-east angle; north-east service block added by the Lavenders.
The present Jacobean appearance-of the house is a result of the C19 remodelling.
South front. 2 storeys and gable-lit attics. Roughly 7 bays; central
porch and a pair of flanking wings, all with shaped gables and finials,
deep recesses in between; similar blind gable attached to the left hand
side of the left hand wing; hard up against the right hand wing is Ashbee's
boldly projecting chapel with a less formal shaped gable. Each of the
wings flanking the porch has a pair of ground floor cross windows, a first
floor canted bay window with pediment, and a 2-light mullioned attic window
with semi-circular pediment and intertwined initials T.S.H. (for Shaw-Hellier)
above; mullioned and transomed windows in each of the recesses; the porch
has giant angle pilasters capped by crouching lions, a keyed semi-circular
entrance arch, a first floor window of 4 transomed lights with semi-circular
pediment, and a pedimented sundial within a square panel, this is by Ashbee.
Tall chapel south window of 3 lights extended below as blind panels, square
head and nominal tracery; to the west a square headed window of 4 cusped
lights. West front. 3 shaped gables linked by a parapet incorporating
the motto 'DOMUM DULCE DOMUM' instead of balusters; this is by Ashbee.
3 cross windows to both first and second floors grouped slightly to right
of centre, 2 square mullioned and transomed bay windows by Bodley to the
left, first floor bay window and ground floor mullioned and transomed window
to right, central attic casement. Interior. Massive C14 arch-braced
spere truss, to the east of it a queen strut truss which formed the lower
end wall of the medieval hall, C14 close studded timber framing with tension
braces. Early C18 dog-leg staircase in the parlour wing with turned balusters
and moulded handrail; C17 stone fireplaces with moulded surrounds; much
C18 wall panelling; early C20 staircase in a late C17 style with turned
balusters and panelled dado. V.C.H. Vol. XX (1984) pp.205-6; B.O.E. p.327.

Listing NGR: SO8854593535

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• The Wodehouse at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17544994

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

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)