'Crow Clump', 'The Corbies' and 'Yaffle Hill', Weybridge, Surrey

Description

374/0/10111 YAFFLE ROAD
30-JAN-08 St George's Hill
'Crow Clump', 'The Corbies' and 'Yaffl
e Hill'

Large private house, 1914, designed by Tubbs, Messer and Poulter, in Arts and Crafts style built by W G Tarrant in St George's Hill, Weybridge. Divided into three separate units c1950. The central section has reverted to a single unit having been further subdivided, with an upper floor flat.

MATERIALS: Largely soft red-brown brick in Flemish bond, the service wing (The Corbies) and part of the central section (Crow Clump) is rendered. Part of the north front and entrance are timber framed and brick-nogged. Plaintile roofs. Tall brick stacks, some external. Stone, tile, and timber dressings.

PLAN: Assymmetrical roughly 'E' plan. The main entrance faces north, the west front overlooks steep terraced gardens. The service wing is in the east wing. Principal rooms lie on the garden side of a longitudinal corridor and landing and overlooking the gardens to the south. Two storeys and attics and semi-basement. The house is divided vertically into three separate units, to the west of the hall, and at the service wing.

EXTERIOR: Entrance front is under a single pitched roof which rises to a taller hipped roof to the right. The two-bay gabled rendered upper storey to left is slightly set forward over a brick ground floor. A timber and brick-nogged porch with a deep, pitched roof has a deeply moulded oak door set back under a moulded four-centre arched entrance; bargeboards are ornately carved. Above, a four-light window breaks forward slightly. Windows are irregularly placed timber-framed mullion and transom or plain casements, on the ground floor with square leaded lights. First floor windows and dormer windows generally have diamond leaded lights. A long six-light window lights the stair. The gabled bays have small two-light casements under the eaves. Half-hipped dormers, some replaced, have tile hung cheeks and have similar leaded casements. The ground floor fenestration to the left of the entrance has been reordered moving the three-light mullion and transom window. A first floor window to left of the entrance has been restored. The northern, gabled bay has a large, external brick stack with triple moulded shafts, flanked by small inglenook windows.

The left hand of the west front has tall paired two-and-a-half storey gabled bays, timber-framed and rendered above first floor. To the right a doorway with replaced glazed leaves, flanked to right by similar but original tall windows under overlights is set back under a verandah supported on quadrate shafts, set on a brick-edged stone flagged terrace. Above is a balcony of two bays, and one wider bay to the left, each bay in a four-centre arched timber architrave, and with a balustrade of turned timber balusters. A deep, hipped roof has a pair of half-hipped two-light dormers. Ground floor openings are in moulded stone architraves, upper-floor windows are in flush timber frames. Windows have rectangular leaded lights except for the attic floor which has diamond leaded lights.
The south garden front is largely in brick, the right hand, twin gabled bay and service wing being rendered. To the left is a two-storey brick bow window with a balcony above. Windows have moulded stone mullions and transoms. Set back, a gabled timber framed attic storey has timber framed casements and a door. The central section has flush brick and tile dressings over the ground floor openings. Timber-framed mullion and transom windows on a brick and tile base are set behind a verandah with similar shafts to the west front. The door is replaced. A five-light ground floor and pair of four-light upper floor windows have timber-framed mullion and transom casements with shallow tile cills, the left hand first floor window under a brick-nogged gablet. Above are two pairs of full two-light dormers, those to left with splayed roofs are copies, those to the right are original. To the right a ground floor stone bay window carries symmetrical gabled two-bay upper storeys, each bay with three-light and two-light timber casements with moulded feet, and diamond leaded lights. The right return has a large external brick stack.

The service wing is half hipped with an offset roofline against a large stack of two rectangular shafts. Two and three-light timber mullion and transom casements on the ground floor and two-light first floor casements are set deep under the eaves. Adjacent to the stack are three half-hipped dormers. The east elevation is similarly treated and has a moulded bressumer. A half -hipped roofed garden room projects on the south side under a similar first floor casement. At lower level but at ground floor on this front are a garage and storage.

INTERIOR:
CENTRAL SECTION (CROW CLUMP): The rear arch of the main door is of vertically set tiles. Similar tiled arches give onto the corridor and hall and flank the lobby. The hall, reached by a large timber doorcase under a cambered arch with an open panel above with a moulded mullion, has a large stone chimneypiece with a moulded timber mantelpiece and diagonally set brick linings. Closed string stairs above small-panelled linings have square newels with moulded finials, almost flat moulded balusters, and a moulded rail. The dining room chimneypiece has a broad moulded mahogany frame, a carved stone bressumer and tiled slips to a cast iron basket grate. The dado and door are similarly panelled in mahogany. Ground floor doors are of two raised and fielded panels. The door has simple robust brass fittings. The ceiling has a single moulded band. The study has a tall timber overmantel and frame containing a small hearth under a shaped copper hood over brick slips and on a stone hearth. The upper floor landing is divided by a tall timber cambered archway beneath overlights with a central mullion, similar to that on the ground floor. Similar archways define the transverse corridor in the service wing. First floor architraves and integral picture rails have a triangular profile. First floor doors are of eight panels and painted. Upper floor rooms retain timber chimneypiece,s several with cast iron basket grates, most with tiled slips. Overlooking the garden the former sitting room has fitted panelled cupboards flanking a window also with panelled linings, and a window seat. The former dressing room has a plain chimneypiece possibly altered inter-war, with crudely set mosaic tiles similar to those in the bathrooms.

WESTERN SECTION (YAFFLE HILL): The drawing room has an ornate chimneypiece with an eared architrave but replaced grate. Pilasters to a former screen are now enclosed in an inserted partition wall. The ceiling has a slender moulded foliate band and convex vine leaf cornice. Window fittings are of brass. The billiard room is lined in three-quarter height small-panelled oak wainscotting, the door similarly treated. The ceiling has moulded ribs in a lozenge pattern. A large brick baronial fireplace with a brick hood and flanks set against a panelled wainscot is flanked by small windows. The room has been slightly reordered to accommodate inserted stairs. The stair rises through a former dressing room lined in plastered square panelling. The adjacent bedroom is similarly treated and has a very broad timber chimneypiece with wide tiled slips and a basket grate. Overlooking the west front the principal bedroom has a deep window bay under a broad cambered arch with plastered linings with a foliate trail. A small neo-Georgian timber fireplace, probably replaced, has a replaced grate. Bathrooms have mosaic-tiled walls probably inter-war. Upper stairs have square newels with oak block caps, a moulded oak rail and turned balusters. An upper-floor chimneypiece has slender Ionic pilasters and tiled slips to a cast iron grate, and may be reused from elsewhere in the house. Throughout the house most windows have scrolled window stays and pigtail catches with ornate panels.

SERVICE WING (THE CORBIES): The service wing is more simply treated than the main house. On the ground floor a tall tiled arch terminates the transverse corridor which leads to the garden room also under a lower cambered tiled arch beneath a long horizontal light with diamond leaded panes. Closed string stairs rising from basement to attic have square newels with incised finials, square balusters and a simple moulded rail. Doors are of six plain panels many with moulded iron fittings on lozenge shaped plates. The upper corridor has a tall oak archway similar to those in the main house. The former nursery has a plain chimneypiece with a good iron grate, and a door of eight panels. Upper-floor rooms have small simple chimneypieces with integral iron grates. Some rooms retain plain panelled cupboards. The basement retains a glazed screen in a heavy square frame, and a larder with slate shelves.

HISTORY: W G Tarrant (1875-1942) was born and brought up in Hampshire, the son of a police constable. He was apprenticed as a carpenter and in 1895 set up business in Byfleet, Surrey, first as a carpenter and later as a builder and was one of the most influential and prolific builders in Surrey in the first half of the C20. He built extensively in Weybridge, West Byfleet, Pyrford and Woking and latterly on the Wentworth Estate, Virginia Water. At its peak in the 1920s, his business is said to have employed a workforce of several thousand men and women. As well as the yard which produced joinery, stone and metal work, he owned brickfields and nurseries. Tarrant's first major project started in 1911 with the purchase of 964 acres of land on St George's Hill, Weybridge. It was a private estate, intended for wealthy businessmen, centred on a golf course. A promotional pamphlet, 'Ideal Designs for Houses to be Erected at St George's Hill Weybridge by Mr W G Tarrant', published in 1912 by Seth-Smith and Monro architects, includes plans for 20 houses; not all of them were executed. Work started in 1912 and continued steadily either side of the First World War until the late 1920s. Almost forty architectural firms contributed to the scheme, notably, in terms of number: Pine-Coffin, Imrie and Angell, Seth-Smith & Monro, Tubbs, Messer and Poulter and Wood & Sarvis. Approximately 120 houses and cottages, including staff accommodation, were put up by WGT Ltd. By late 1914, Tarrant was contracted to produce portable wooden huts for the British Expeditionary Force in France, latterly prefabricated in Britain and put together in France by women trained at his Byfleet base. Another project was a timber biplane, the Tarrant Tabor, designed to carry a bomb, which crashed on its maiden flight in 1919. Tarrant was keenly interested in social housing as well as opulent development, building in Byfleet, Pyrford and Guildford. Housing at Stoughton, Guildford was one of the first schemes in the country following the 1919 Housing Act, and in response, Tarrant produced 'standardised permanent wood and brick cottage type B'. It is implied that this model was used in northern France and Belgium in the regeneration after the First World War. In 1925 he applied for a patent for the 'self-setting block bungalow', exhibited at the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.

The house was commissioned for Mr Thomas Paul Latham, one of two senior managers of Courtaulds. Latham was instrumental in making Courtaulds the first and most widely successful producer of synthetic viscose fabric in the world. In 1919 he was awarded a hereditary baronetage which he had named after this house - Baron Latham of Crow Clump. The house was owned and occupied by the Latham family until 1951. On the 2nd August 1951 consent was given for conversion into three houses.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Crow Clump, The Corbies and Yaffle Hill, built as Crow Clump in 1914, are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is one of the largest and earliest houses built by W G Tarrant at St George's Hill to designs by Tubbs, Messer and Poulter.
* It is an accomplished design; the quality of materials and craftsmanship is high, reflecting its late Arts and Crafts pedigree.
* Despite being subdivided, it survives remarkably well as an intact pre-war house built for the affluent businessman.
* St George's Hill is of interest as an unusual speculation built from 1912 to the 1930s by a builder, employing the expertise of many architects.
* The scheme provides a valuable insight into the impact of the First World War and the ensuing economic climate on the upper end of the housing market.

SOURCES:
Mavis Swenarton, Inventory of Tarrant-Built Houses on St George's Hill, Walton & Weybridge Local History Society (1992/1998)
Neil White, Weybridge Past (1999)
W G Tarrant biographical file, Elmbridge Museum
Mavis Swenarton, W G Tarrant: Master Builder and Developer, Monograph No. 54, Walton & Weybridge Local History Society, April 1993
Plans and drawings in private ownership

Reasons for Listing

Crow Clump, The Corbies and Yaffle Hill, built as Crow Clump in 1914, have been designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is one of the largest and earliest houses built by W G Tarrant at St George's Hill to designs by Tubbs, Messer and Poulter.
* It is an accomplished design; the quality of materials and craftsmanship is high, reflecting its late Arts and Crafts pedigree.
* Despite being subdivided, it survives remarkably well as an intact pre-war house built for the affluent businessman.
* St George's Hill is of interest as an unusual speculation built from 1912 to the 1930s by a builder, employing the expertise of many architects.
* The scheme provides a valuable insight into the impact of the First World War and the ensuing economic climate on the upper end of the housing market.

External Links

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