Description

BALSALL

732/0/10038 BALSALL ROAD
09-AUG-06 SHENSTONE GRANGE

II
A detached house dating from the C17, with extensive additions dating to c.1901.
MATERIALS: the original range is a two-storey, three bay timber framed house, with clay pantile roof and brick stack, now entirely covered in roughcast render; the Edwardian range of brick, with roughcast render and applied mock timber framing, plain clay tiled roof with moulded finials and rolled ridge tiles, and brick stack. The later C19 crosswing to the rear is of brick, with roughcast render to unify the appearance of the entire house.
PLAN: the three-bay timber framed house appears to have been a lobby entry house with a single room to either side of the stack and lobby, orientated north-south with its gable end to the road. The Edwardian wing, which is single depth, runs east-west along the road front, adjoining the timber framed house on the eastern side; and the extension to the rear is a two bay room extending the timber framed building with a cross wing running eastwards from its northern end, which is a single large open space to the ground floor. A single storey sun room has also been added to the eastern end of the c.1901 extension (not of special interest).
EXTERIOR: The main elevation facing the road (south elevation) consists of the gable end of the north-south range with an attached range of two bays under a pitched roof. The gable end has tripartite timber casements to the ground and first floor, and a two-pane fixed light to the attic, and the full height of the gable has decorative applied mock timber framing with roughcast render infill above a stone plinth. In the later range, the building is brick built in English bond to a string course, with moulded brick plinth, and mock timber framing with roughcast render infill panels to the ground floor is a gabled, glazed porch with mock timber framing above a moulded brick plinth, and a squared bay window with four paned timber casements with stained glass toplights. To the first floor, two gabled half-dormers, with three-light windows similar to that in the ground floor bay window. All the gables to this elevation have decorative bargeboards with pendant timbers and decorative finials to the roofs. The elevation to the west is entirely covered in roughcast render, and consists of three bays to the south which are the timber framed house, two bays further north, and a further two bays in a gabled extension, with brick plinth. The gabled extension has double garage up-and-over door to the ground floor with two modern three light timber casements with opening toplights above, similar to those on the south elevation, and is not of special interest. Similar windows are to be found in the two bays added in the C19, with an entrance door in the northern bay. The three bays of the timber framed range have irregular fenestration; that to the north has similar three light windows to those elsewhere in the house to ground and first floors; the central bay has an Edwardian window with stained glass toplights to the ground floor, at the site of the former entrance doorway, with a two-light timber casement offset to the first floor. To the southernmost bay the only window is a single, square fixed light to the ground floor.
INTERIOR: The timber framed house is much more evident in the interior of the building.
Ground floor: the original house was of lobby entry design, with a heated room either side of the central stack, which at ground floor level is built of sandstone. The kitchen, the northern room, has a very large chamfered beam running north south, with exposed ceiling joists across the entire room, with chamfers and stepped stops. The door to the lobby is set in its original frame, and has an early, if not original, plank and batten door with the remains of its C17 latch serving as a handle. The framing continues along the lobby and into the living room to the south, which has the same arrangement of very large beam and exposed ceiling joists with chamfers and stepped stops. The fireplace is of sandstone, recently infilled with brick, with a massive bressumer beam with a very shallow four centred arch. The Edwardian range has a large staircase hall and drawing room to the front of the ground floor, with cloakroom and ancillary rooms to the rear.
First floor: a single large bedroom in the Edwardian wing. In the timber framed range, the visible decorations are now all late C20, but a timber doorway remains in the landing at the point where the timber wing meets the later extension to the north. The southernmost bedroom retains its original ceiling, visible from the attic space above.
Attic: the Edwardian range has an entirely C20 roof structure, but the timber framing of the roof in the original range remains almost entirely intact, having been encapsulated below the new roof. The trusses are formed from principal rafters with tie beams, collar and diagonal struts supporting the collars, with single trenched purlins; the ridge purlin is set diagonally and supported by crossed principal rafters. A few curved wind braces remain in situ and the majority of the common rafters are also original. One mid-truss retains all but one panel of wattle and daub infill, and others are infilled with brick. The chimney stack has been rebuilt in brick at this level.

HISTORY: The original building at Shenstone Grange was a two-storey, three-bay timber framed house, dating from the C17, and was probably a farmstead at this date, in an isolated situation in open countryside alongside the main road access to Balsall Common. By the mid C19 the farming use had presumably ceased: the tithe map shows the timber range and an extension to the north, described as three tenements; by 1887, the main range has an additional bay to the north and a single storey cross wing to the rear; and c.1901, the house, now situated in the village but still surrounded by a large landholding, was substantially extended, creating a new main range fronting the road, comparable in size to the original range. By the later C20, having become surrounded by modern suburban houses, and its land having dwindled to around half an acre, Shenstone Grange was extended again, creating a second storey at the rear of the timber framed range, and further increasing the overall volume of the building. The building is mentioned in the Victoria County History (though not by name) as a C17 house.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE :

Shenstone Grange is an imposing suburban house, ostensibly Edwardian (c.1901) in date but with a C17 timber framed, post and truss, lobby-entry house forming a wing of the current house and surviving almost unaltered, and this is the more significant part of the building. In order to meet the criteria for listing, vernacular buildings dating from before 1700 need to demonstrate good survival of their plan form, fabric, construction and a high level of intactness. The high degree of preservation of the timber framed house at Shenstone Grange makes it a nationally significant survival, which is enhanced rather than compromised by the handsome Edwardian extension which has encapsulated it and has thereby served to preserve much of the earlier fabric.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671077

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

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)