Longholt and the Wing, Hildenborough, Kent

Summary

House, built in 1911 to the designs of H R and B A Poulter, FRIBA, for Viscomte Lester Ramsay de Fonblanque. The Wing was added in the 1920s as a service wing to the house, but since c1960 has been a separate dwelling.

Other than the west wall and roof of the 1920s cross-wing to the rear, and the party wall between the two houses, none of The Wing is to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act.

Description

Longholt was built in 1911 to the designs of H R and B A Poulter, FRIBA, for Viscomte Lester Ramsay de Fonblanque. The Wing was added in the 1920s as a service wing to the house, but since c1960 has been a separate dwelling.

MATERIALS: the building is of white-painted brick with red brick chimneys, corner quoins and string course; the roof is covered in clay tiles. Windows are timber, predominantly multi-light sashes, but in some cases side-hung casements.

PLAN: the building is only one room deep, so its footprint is long and narrow, with the wide front and rear elevations facing east and west respectively. The principal rooms are arranged linearly, facing west onto the garden, and are accessed from a hall running just inside the east front. The building is entered through a central lobby which opens into the hall.

EXTERIOR: the building is two storeys high beneath a hipped roof with sprocketted eaves; below the eaves is a timber modillion cornice. The entrance front is an asymmetric composition around a central projecting hipped-roof lobby with a pair of three-panel entrance doors, surrounded by a deep, eared architrave. To the right of the lobby the elevation advances slightly beneath a pair of hipped-roofs. A hopper beneath the string course is dated 1911. To the left of the lobby is a large external side-wall stack with decorative projecting brick corner bands above eaves level. The windows are original and vary between eight-over-eight pane sashes, and pairs of four-over-four and six-over-nine pane sashes, as well as several small casements.

The west elevation is more formal and almost symmetrical. It is nine bays wide with a pair of French windows just off-centre to the right. To either side are two-bay, two-storey bows. The ground-floor windows are eight-over-twelve pane sashes, and those above are eight-over-eight pane sashes. All of the windows on the west and south elevations have green-painted louvered shutters. To the far left is a cross wing with a pair of hipped-roofs, added as part of the 1920s extension to the building. It is detailed to match the original house and its projection partially screens the rest of the former service wing (now The Wing). The west wall of this cross-wing is two bays wide; the right-hand bay was originally open-fronted to the south, providing the loggias at ground and first floor. A timber conservatory has been added at ground floor, and at first floor the loggia has been enclosed and a casement window inserted. The left-hand bay, which has now lost its original green louvred shutters, was part of the service wing, and now forms part of The Wing; the parts of the west wall and roof belonging to The Wing are included in the listing for their architectural integration with Longholt.

INTERIOR: the interior of Longholt is simple but little-altered, with original cornices and joinery, including six-panel doors to principal rooms. Of the three principal ground floor rooms, one (identified as the smoking room on an early floor plan) has lost its fireplace. The drawing room has a herringbone parquet floor, plaster panels above a dado rail, and a full-height hardwood chimneypiece which comprises a moulded fire surround and mantelshelf, with a grid of unmoulded panels above. The slip and hearth are of polished black granite. The fireplace in what was referred to in early plans as the dining hall, has a simple oak surround with a deep mantelshelf, and a pale polished stone slip and hearth. The stair is straight with a painted square newel and closely-spaced square balusters, supporting a hardwood handrail. Some of the bedrooms retain their fire surrounds, which are painted cast iron or tiled, with deep friezes and mantelshelves.

History

Longholt, known historically as Long Holt, was built in 1911 to the designs of H R and B A Poulter, FRIBA, for Viscomte Lester Ramsay de Fonblanque. The house was built by Martin & Co of Tonbridge.

Harry Reginald Poulter (1879-1966) and Briant Alfred Poulter (1881-1972) were brothers who practised together from an office in their home town of Camberley, Surrey. It was a successful local practice, with much of their work being in Surrey, if not Camberley, and including municipal, ecclesiastical and domestic buildings. Four of their buildings are known to be listed.

Longholt originally had a small service yard to the north, but this was later replaced with a larger service wing, probably in the 1920s. This new wing provided servants' rooms, garaging and stores downstairs, and a nursery and servants' bedrooms above. The extension also provided the main house with open, south-facing loggias on two storeys. Longholt was advertised for sale in the late 1950s, and following its sale the majority of the later wing (not including the loggias) was converted into a separate, self-contained, dwelling known as 'The Wing'.

Longholt, has undergone little alteration, the main exceptions being the opening-up of the pantry and larder into the kitchen, the addition of a small conservatory in front of the ground-floor loggia, and the enclosing of the first-floor loggia to form a small room.

Reasons for Listing

Longholt and The Wing, 1911 and c1920, now occupied as two separate houses, are listed at Grade II, with the exclusion of the majority of The Wing from the designation, for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: executed by an architectural practice of regional note, Longholt combines neo-Georgian and Arts and Crafts elements in a restrained but handsomely-wrought piece of early-C20 domestic architecture;
* Level of survival: Longholt survives well inside and out, retaining its distinctive linear floor plan and elegant interior fittings.

External Links

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