Burrows Wood, Shere, Surrey

Description

SHERE

431/0/10037 LAWBROOK LANE
09-OCT-06 Gomshall
Burrows Wood

II
Detached house. Built between 1936-9, architect Oliver Hill (1887-1968) for W Deane and Amy Barnes Brand in a mixture of Vernacular Revival and Modernist styles

MATERIALS: Built of cavity brick walls to first floor level with facings of thin silver grey bricks in Sussex bond, the first floor of the sides and rear elevations of timber construction faced with cedar shingles. Gabled tiled roof with tall brick chimneystack in centre of north west side.

PLAN: A curved plan, a variation of the Edwardian butterfly plan with principal rooms of two storeys facing south east to take advantage of the sunshine, and the entrance front to the north east T-shaped of one storey and attics with central projecting integral garage.

EXTERIOR: The north east or entrance front is of one storey and attics, divided by the projecting gabled garage range with the main entrance to the south and service wing to the north. The central gable is splayed to the sides and has an oval window in the gable end. Set into the rear of this, against the body of the main house, is a tall, slightly tapered chimney stack. There is a nine-pane cambered sash dormer on each side, two casement windows with wooden shutters to the south and original sliding garage double doors and service entrance to the north. The south side has one very tall cambered headed wooden dormer with sash window with twenty seven panes lighting the staircase hall and a shorter twelve-pane sash to the dormer above the front door. The doorcase is in Queen Anne style with a moulded architrave splayed to the base with a moulded cornice with bolection moulding and blank panel and eight glazed panels to the door. The north side has a six-light metal Crittall window to the kitchen and to the extreme north a curved projection originally containing coal and coke storage.

The south western garden front has a distinctive curve. It has overhanging eaves and the first floor has five metal-framed Crittall windows with wooden shutters. The ground floor has a recessed central loggia with three-light metal Crittall windows with wooden shutters either side of a central entrance with original glazed door with circular decoration to the base. The left side ground floor window is five-light. The corresponding window to the right, also five-light, retains the original metal frame but the divisions have been removed. The south east end has three two-light Crittall casements to the first floor. The ground floor has a three-light metal Crittall window and French window with an adjoining window to the west and the mullion has been removed from this window. The north east side is similar with three two-light Crittall windows to the first floor but the ground floor has one two-light window, one four-light window with the central mullion removed, and the French window has been replaced.

INTERIOR: The staircase-hall retains a series of original flush panelled doors. The staircase and first floor gallery has a frame of walnut with moulded handrail and newelposts with ball finials but paler birch curved members forming the balustrade. Originally there was a separate study to the south but the partition has been removed to make it part of the staircase-hall. The sun room, the south room of the ground floor, has double sliding doors into the central lounge, which are replacements. The lounge originally had a brick fireplace with corrugated asbestos cement sheets set in receding planes and strip lights around it, but this was later replaced by a stone bolection-moulded fireplace. The dining rooom to the north originally had bare white walls and retains the serving hatch into the original service end. The kitchen, which has been re-fitted, now extends across the original kitchen, pantry and maids sitting room. The upper floor has a landing with curved balustrade and circular pier below sloping dormer cheeks. The original sewing room and box room above the garage have been amalgamated to form one bedroom but the other room divisions, comprising two former maids rooms, two guest rooms and two principal bedrooms survive. The dividing wall between two bedrooms was staggered to provide a wardrobe and wash hand basin in a cupboard in each bedroom. One of the original wash hand basins survives.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Oliver Hill also landscaped the gardens and an important part of his design was the terrace walling, originally linked to the loggia in the centre of the south west side of the house by a path and pond, which are now no longer present, but comprising stone terrace walling incorporating two flights of steps, a further semi-circular shaped flight of steps to the west and a circular stone feature, originally without sundial. This reflects the curve of the house itself.

HISTORY: Oliver Hill designed Burrows Wood for Mr and Mrs Barnes Brand, for who he had previously designed two other houses in Surrey. These comprised Woodhouse Copse at Holmbury St Mary 1924-6 (listed grade II) and Raikes Hollow in the same parish, built in 1930 as a speculation. Two other previous major domestic commissions in Surrey of his were Marylands at Hurtwood in 1930 (listed grade II*) and Joldwynds at Abinger Hammer in about 1929 (listed grade II). According to a 1938 Country Life article about Burrows Wood: "It was the express wish of his clients that the house should not only fit sweetly into its surroundings, but also that it should not be in any way bizarre." The house was seen as, "a marriage of two modes, being both modern and traditional in form and structure". The building was designed with a segmental shape to make maximum use of both sunshine and views. Stone flagged terraces to the south, east and west sides were also designed by the architect to take the composition down to grassy slopes and the distant view. The ground floor plan comprised a study and staircase to the north east, a garage block projecting in the centre of the north east side, service rooms to the north west and the principal rooms comprising sun room, lounge and dining room on the south west. The original owners were childless so the upper floor accommodation comprised the two owners' bedrooms with bathroom, two guests rooms with bathroom, two maids bedrooms with bathroom and over the garage a box room and sewing room. The 1938 Country Life article particularly remarked on the adoption of the modern American custom of built-in wardrobes and wash hand basins to the bedrooms, which "deserves to be much more widely adapted here". The house cost £4,758 including ten guineas for the layout of the garden and terrace. Sadly the Barnes Brands did not have long to enjoy their new house as by the time of a 1947 article in Ideal Home magazine the property had changed ownership to a Mr Keith Parkhurst.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: A substantially intact house of 1936-39 by the notable architect Oliver Hill which is a most interesting synthesis of traditional Vernacular Revival style to the entrance front and Modernist style to the garden front, on a site landscaped by the architect. It is one of a series of houses built in Surrey by Oliver Hill in differing styles, three of which are already listed (Woodhouse Copse, Holmbury St Mary; Marylands, Ewhurst; Joldwynds, Abinger), the first of these built for the same clients as at Burrows Wood.

SOURCES:
Copies of original plans held by the RIBA at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Oliver Hill records: HIO/73/4 and HIO/74/1
"Country Life" October 8th 1938.
"Ideal Home" 1947.
Dr Alan Powers "Oliver Hill, architect and lover of Life".1989.

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Burrows Wood

A Grade II Listed Building in Shere, Surrey

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