Administration Block, Lord Wandsworth College, Long Sutton, Hampshire

Summary

Administration Block at Lord Wandsworth College, built 1915 to the designs of Guy Dawber.

Description

Administration Block, built 1915 to the designs of Guy Dawber.

MATERIALS: walls constructed of red brick, laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and clay tile roof.

PLAN: rectangular, single-storey plan with a series of office rooms to the south with secondary offices running north behind these. The building is set within a small area of lawn to the south, divided by a central path leading to the main entrance.

EXTERIOR: the southern elevation of the building is the main range. This is formed of five bays, with multi-pane arched sash windows set to either side of the main entrance. The sash windows are surrounded by stone architraves; the outermost architraves are adorned with classical female heads (possibly the Greek Goddesses Athena and Demeter, with their appropriate respective associations with learning and agriculture). The main entrance and the two sash windows on either side are set back from the main elevation underneath a shallow tetrastyle Doric portico, with a pilaster sitting behind each of the columns. These join a plain entablature, atop of which is a stepped stone pediment with Lord Wandsworth’s heraldic shield in the centre. Running behind this is a brick parapet, which follows the return of the main elevations to both sides. At either end of the hipped roof is a brick chimney stack to the ridge. The central double-door entrance within the portico is formed of wooden three-panelled doors set beneath a leaded fanlight formed of interlocking circles. The whole entrance is encased by a stone dentilated architrave.

The eastern elevation of the building consists of eight bays with sash windows set under flat-gauged brick arches with keystones and a brick parapet above. The northernmost bay consists of a wooden and glazed door set within a stone architrave with a six-light window above.

The northern elevation is plainer, with two sash windows set under flat-gauged brick arches with keystones, the whole set underneath a brick parapet. To the west of this is a tripartite sash window with an ocular window set within the gable above. Set back from this is a series of steps up to a recessed rear entrance to the offices. The administration block is attached at this point by a porte-cochère to the Errington Block to the north (excluded from this List entry).

The western elevation consists, like the eastern elevation, of eight bays with a sash window to each. The two outermost bays project slightly and the windows are enclosed by stone architraves. The remaining six have flat-gauged arches with keystones. These all sit underneath a brick parapet which runs the length of the elevation.

INTERIOR: the main entrance into the building is via the south, with a set of part-glazed wooden doors leading to offices, a reception area and a corridor running east-west. Further offices are set to the north, all of these retaining their part-glazed wooden doors and architraves. A second central north-south corridor provides access to further offices and to the rear entrance. The offices looking out to the south have greater levels of decoration, with wooden panelling (added in around the 1990s but possibly relating to an earlier scheme), fireplaces and egg-and-dart cornice moulding. The offices running north-south to the rear of the main southern range are less ornate, with plain part-glazed doors set in glazed-brick surrounds. Internally, these rooms have been modernised to provide office facilities.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a brick and stone capped wall runs perpendicular to the east elevation, with an orb finial-capped gate pier supporting a timber gate, which is set between the flanking wall to the Humanities Block to the east.

History

Lord Wandsworth College was established with money left by Sydney James Stern, Baron Wandsworth (1844-1912), a banker and MP who was raised to the peerage in 1895. As a Liberal MP for the rural Suffolk constituency of Stowmarket, Stern had taken an interest in agricultural affairs and had been committed to improving the living conditions of the rural poor, introducing three Bills on Better Housing of the Working Classes in Rural Districts in the 1890s. Upon his death in 1912, the majority of his £1.25 million fortune was allocated for a residential institution for the benefit of the rural poor, where ‘scientific and practical training will be given in every branch connected with Agriculture’ (quoted in Podger, pp16-17). In accordance with the stipulations set out in the bequest, a committee formed of various experts in the fields of agricultural management, finance and education was established to oversee the foundation and guide its development. The initial question of the site for the ‘Lord Wandsworth Orphanage’, as it was originally termed, was considered by the Trust in 1913. The Long Sutton estate was chosen from a shortlist in August and acquired in October the same year. At the time of purchase the site was comprised of 950 acres of arable land, with the main Sutton House and its associated farm buildings situated to the south and Hyde Farm and its various buildings set to the west. Bennet’s Field, which occupied the main right of way to Hyde Farm, was subsequently purchased in October 1917. The estate was reported to be in poor condition in 1913, with 17 existing cottages on the estate found to be ‘unfit for human habitation’ and the land and hedges in a ‘dreadful condition’ (Kinney, p43); the state of Long Sutton at this stage reflecting the decades of depression that had severely affected agriculture across the country.

The Lord Wandsworth Foundation was originally conceived along the lines of a model village, with the intention being that small groups of children would reside in cottages overseen by a housemaster and be taught on the farm and at a central school house. Trustees met in January 1914 to consider the layout of the site and instigate an initial building programme. Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942) was appointed to advise the Trust and was given responsibility for selecting an architect to create plans for new buildings under his direction. The architect that Blomfield recommended to the Trust, selected in July 1914 from a field of five candidates, was Guy Dawber (1861-1938); a former President of the Architectural Association, principally known for his designs for many small country houses and writings on vernacular architecture. The earliest work on the estate was divided, apparently with ‘some friction’, between the two architects (Podger, p20). Blomfield assumed responsibility for the lodge and main entrance gates, for which plans were produced in July 1914. In the same year Blomfield also designed Shepewood House and several estate cottages. Additionally, in collaboration with C S Orwin (Director of the Institute for Agricultural Economics at Oxford), he produced plans for the extensive Hyde Farm buildings to the west of the site. Dawber’s early work included a power house and laundry block, designs being produced in February 1915, along with a series of cottages completed by October 1916. Plans for a grand range of school buildings produced by Dawber, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915, were interrupted by the outbreak of war with only the Administration and Engineering Blocks completed. Further buildings were constructed to Dawber's designs into the 1920s, including School House and Junior House.

As one of the first earliest school buildings for the Lord Wandsworth Foundation, Dawber’s Administration Block, along with Blomfield’s gates and lodge to the north, set the architectural tone for the rest of the college. With the adjacent Engineering Block (to the east) it formed the western side of the main range of Dawber’s planned courtyard, mirroring the proposed chapel and laboratory on the east side of the central hall. Construction was underway in 1915 and upon completion the two blocks stood in relative isolation. It was not until 1925, under the first Warden, Colonel William Julyan, that plans were produced by Dawber for a dining hall to the east of the Engineering Block. This re-established the main axis of the earlier masterplan and, along with Dawber’s southern gates, brought some order and balance to the site arrangement, as had been intended in the original scheme. Further plans by Dawber of June 1926 for classrooms and recreation rooms (the present library block) were subsequently approved, as were plans for Senior (now School) House (first signed September 1926 and revised January 1927) and Junior House, to the west of the site (April 1928). Together these buildings form the present core grouping of college buildings, marking the transition of the Lord Wandsworth Foundation from a residential institution with scattered cottages based loosely on the model village principles of the later C19, towards a more conventional public school with boarding houses and communal facilities.

Since the completion of the Administration Block there has been some later work to the northern end of the building. Plans were proposed in March 1991 for a block of four classrooms, taking in part of the former transport yard and connecting with the new junior common room, tuck shop and art studio building (completed in 1988). The new connecting building was named the Errington Block (after a former student who had left part of his estate to fund the project) and was opened in December 1992. The work involved the incorporation of what had been the northern elevation of the west wing of the Administration Block into the new building, leaving a covered passage to give access to the northern internal courtyard. Internal modifications have also been made internally, with the panelling to the principal offices to the front of the block added at some stage in the 1990s. The building serves as the main administrative centre for the college and is also the reception building for visitors.

Reasons for Listing

The Administation Block at Lord Wandsworth College is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an accomplished and finely detailed work drawing on vernacular and classical architectural traditions, built to the designs of Guy Dawber, a leading architect of the period;

Historic interest:

* as a well-preserved, early component of an important educational trust focussed on agricultural training, established as a legacy of the Liberal politician and philanthropist Sydney James Stern, Baron Wandsworth (1844-1912);

Group value:

* with the other early Lord Wandsworth College buildings, particularly the adjacent core college buildings also by Dawber. The buildings throughout the estate have a strong collective value, demonstrating careful planning by Blomfield and Dawber, manifest in the varied yet harmonious arrangement of distinguished buildings which draw on vernacular and classical traditions.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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