Description

SHERFIELD ON LODDON

289/0/10077 Sherfield House School, including atta
26-MAR-04 ched terrace walling and steps
Sherfield School (formerly North Forel
and Lodge School), including attached
terrace walling and steps

GV II
Originally large house,later school. 1896-9 remodelling of an 1864 house by Fairfax Blomfield Wade (1851-1919) and C Frankiss for James B Taylor, a South African diamond miner. The building has a Jacobean modified E-plan but Classical architectural details. Built of red brick with stone bands and window dressings and tiled roof with tall brick chimneystacks with stone stripes. It is of two storeys and attics with tiers of mullioned and transomed casements.
EXTERIOR: The entrance front has a projecting central full-height porch and projecting wing to the south west; the north east wing, part of the service wing, does not project as far. The central porch has a gable with oculus to attic, elaborate first floor window with curved open pediment and console brackets and pedimented portico with round-headed arches. This is flanked by a right hand bay with triple windows and a left side bay with tall mullioned and transomed triple staircase window. The south west projecting wing is gable ended and has tiers of mullioned and transomed casements. The north east wing does not project as far and is part of the service wing. The garden front has a corner loggia with round-headed openings (extended after 1910 and now glazed-in) and is of six bays which include two projecting gables with ball finials. The remains of the 1864 house are visible at the north east end, red brick with black brick structural polychromy and sash windows. Also attached to the garden front are brick terrace walling with stone balustrading and stone steps. The later C20 school extensions added to the south west and north east are not of special interest.
INTERIOR: A mixture of Jacobean and Wrennaissance style fittings. Fine oak well staircase with high quality strapwork carving, dado panelling and plaster strapwork ceiling above. The Hall Vestibule has an elaborate wooden screen with metal grilles and marble paving. The southern part of the Hall (later called the Sofa Hall) has a strapwork plastered ceiling and fine oak panelling with Ionic pilasters, round-headed openings with shell mouldings and a fine marble fireplace dated 1899 with two paired columns and an elaborate wooden overmantel with strapwork panel and two round-headed niches. The Old Library (originally the Billiard room) has early C18 style dado panelling, a marble fireplace with eared architraves and drops and a two-panelled door. The Zodiac Room (originally Boudoir) also has early C18 style features with a plastered ceiling decorated with swags and the signs of the zodiac, an elaborate cornice and a fireplace with eared architraves and a swag frieze. The Sun Room was originally an open loggia but was extended after 1910 and glazed-in and has a marble floor and Japanese wallpaintings or wallpaper. The Gallery (originally the Drawing Room) has two stone bolection-moulded fireplaces and the Library (originally the Dining Room) has fine oak C18 style panelling with pilasters. The former Study has an elaborate fireplace with rose and pomegranite motifs to the spandrels, Ionic pilasters and built-in oak shelving. The former Garden Room (later Gun Room) has a marble fireplace with eared architrave and brackets, built-in walnut cupboards and a walnut door. The first floor retains a corner bedroom (later Headmistress's Study) with early C18 style panelling, a green marble fireplace with Ionic pilasters and Adam details and a plastered ceiling. Other rooms have marble fireplaces. The building also retains the 1864 service staircase with balustered newel posts. The former Scullery and Larder retain walls lined with Delft tiles and the basement retains wine shelves and further rooms lined with Delft tiles.
HISTORY: The earlier house on the site was Buckfield House of 1864. When the new house called Sherfield Manor was built for James B Taylor, a South African diamond miner, part of the 1864 house was retained as a part of the service wing. James Taylor later sold the house to the Liddells, who sold it to the Earl of Winchelsea. It was used as a nurses home during the Second World War. In 1947 the Earl of Winchelsea sold it to a girls school and it was renamed North Foreland Lodge School, because the school had originally been founded at North Foreland in Kent in 1909. At the time of inspection the building had been sold again and renamed Sherfield School.
A principal work of the architect Fairfax Wade with an impressive exterior, a mixture of Jacobean plan and classical detailing, which has only been altered by the extension and glazing-in of the loggia in the early C20 and some later C20 extensions (not of special interest) at the extremities. The interior, a mixture of Jacobean and Wrennaissance styles, is particularly fine and complete.

[Illustrated in "Recent English Domestic Architecture" a special edition of "Architectural Review" 1910.
"Buildings of England: Hampshire" p502.
A Stuart Gray "Edwardian Architecture" 1985 p366.]

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670107

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)