South Gates, Lord Wandsworth College, Long Sutton, Hampshire

Summary

South gates to Lord Wandsworth College, built around 1926 to the designs of Guy Dawber.

Description

South gates to Lord Wandsworth College, built around 1926 to the designs of Guy Dawber.

MATERIALS: red brick with stone dressings and timber and iron gates.

DESCRIPTION: gates designed as part of the secondary phase of the core of the Lord Wandsworth College, forming the principal entrance from the southern playing fields. The gates align with the Engineering Block (now Humanities Block) to the north. There are four brick gate piers, all with stone plinths and caps; the outer pair are smaller with stone orb finials, the central piers have recessed corners and stone acorn finials. Set between the piers are three low-set gates with timber frames and braces gates and iron bars, straps and fixings (which have been restored). The arced central gate forms a carriage entrance and is flanked by two narrow gates.

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.

Following the War, the Trust fell back on a more modest scheme of development. The shortage of labour and heightened building costs made returning to Dawber’s 1915 plans impracticable and, in March 1921, the Trust dispensed of his services. Instead, a campaign of building simple cottages was embarked upon (planned to be built in phases to the designs of H P G Maulle), partly in accordance with the stipulations of the bequest which set out this favoured model of development, but also undoubtedly influenced by the need for economy at this time. This piecemeal approach was however to be short-lived. In 1922, the appointment of the first Warden, Colonel William Julyan, brought about a more ambitious programme of works. Under Julyan’s tenure (1922-30) there was a focus on formalising the Foundation’s educational programme and arranging the college along more conventional lines; an approach influenced by Julyan’s own time at Oxford and training in Agricultural Law at Gray’s Inn. Julyan held reservations about the Trust’s existing arrangement of housing boys in separate cottages, describing the conditions as ‘Spartan in the extreme’ and claiming the system was impractical owing to the lack of suitable housemasters. Consequently, from 1923, a return to an arrangement along the lines of Dawber’s 1915 plans, albeit in a scaled-back manner, was advocated. Dawber was reappointed and initially plans were produced in for a dining hall in May 1925 which was to serve as a social centre for the college (meals having previously been taken in individual cottages). This was completed in 1926 and its design followed the form of his earlier Administration Block, building on the main axis of the earlier masterplan, thus giving some order and balance to the site arrangement. Subsequent proposals for a large hall and dedicated library were ruled out by the Trust, but plans by Dawber of June 1926 for classrooms and recreation rooms (the present library block) were realised, 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), which together form the present core grouping of college buildings.

The work by Dawber in the latter half of the 1920s, marked 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. The south gates, or the ‘acorn gates’, were part of this work, instigated by Colonel William Julyan and built to give a more formal arrangement to the school following the abandonment of the partially-completed 1915 plans. The gates were built as part of the same phase of works as the Dining Hall, which was designed to balance the existing Administration Block to the west. The alignment of the gates with the Engineering Block was arranged to establish a central approach from the south, providing a counterpoint to Blomfield’s 1914-15 gates to the north. In recent years the road and surfacing around the gates has been renewed and the timber and iron gates have been restored.

Reasons for Listing

The South Gates at Lord Wandsworth College are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a restrained, well executed set of gate piers with good carved stonework, built to the designs of Guy Dawber, a leading architect of the period;

Historic interest:

* as a well-preserved 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 Dawber's former Engineering block, which the gates were positioned and designed in relation to. 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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