History

Small country house of early C19 with attached range of earlier C18 date and lofted outbuilding of later C18 date. First mentioned in 1682 as part of the Perrott of Haroldston estate, occupied by John Bevans, yeoman. In 1722 there are references to John Steward, gentleman, and his son Charles, of Little Milford. By 1756 owned by Caesar Mathias, High Sheriff 1774, died 1795. His son Sir Henry Mathias moved to Fernhill, nearby, was High Sheriff in 1816 and died in 1832. Owned in 1907 by J S Robbers. The curious rococo ornament on the ceiling of the dining room looks later C18, suggesting that rear wing is a remodelling of older range, perhaps raised or reroofed in C19.

Exterior

House, stucco with slate roofs. Early C19 main range is a square plan 3-storey, 2 bay building with hipped close-eaved roof with centre valley. Front to river has 3-storey canted bay to left with 8-12-8-pane sashes to main floors and 6-9-6-pane sashes to top floor with cornice. Thin turned columns at angles each floor and roughcast between floors. Right side is irregular as unusually incorporating stair window on the facade wall. Ground floor 6-panel door with 2 flush panels and 4 fielded with rebated corners to panels. Lattice glazing bars to overlight. Plain raised surround. To right at mid height is long arched stair light with small-paned sash and radiating bars to head, and top floor has 9-pane hornless sash, aligned between door and stair-light. Plain roughcast left side wall with hornless sash each floor to left. Rear has red brick wallface chimney. Rear left has projecting wing with slightly half-hipped end to roof and left side-wall brick chimney. End wall has 4-pane horned sash over hornless tripartite 4-12-4-pane sash. Right side wall of main house has similar hornless sash to upper floors set to right over rear roof of low service wing with front 9-pane small sash over large 16-pane sash, brick right end stack and outshut rear with small window and door in angle to main house.
To right again and set back is a lower range which appears to be an early C18 house converted to outbuilding when the new house was built. Rubble stone with roughcast low 2-storey front, two C19 plain loft windows over C19 board door and window, with a paired window to left of door, the windows fixed casements. Rubble gable end has loft light over lean-to, and rear right has gable with big square rubble stone chimney.
This backs onto the end of a large lofted outbuilding running parallel to the rear wing of the main house across a narrow court. Slightly higher eaves and ridge, imitation slates. Front to court has 3 narrow horizontal lights under eaves, unglazed 2-light with diagonally set bars. Ground floor has 2 coach entries with oak lintels, board door to right. End gable has outside stone steps to loft door with window to right. Rear has 2 similar long narrow loft windows and ground floor whitewashed rubble long lean-to, running into angle with rear left of early range. Window, door and window set to left.

Interior

Main house has staircase open to left of entrance hall, 4 flights with ramped rail, square section balusters and scrolled tread ends. Ground floor room to left with 6-panel door, plain cornice, C19 chimneypiece with roundels in angles and cast-iron grate. Big elliptical-arched recess on side wall with panelled pilasters. Arches in hall, smaller room to rear left with C19 cast-iron grate in fireplace. Dining room in rear wing has C19 fireplace but 2 earlier big fielded-panelled 6-panel doors and rococo style ceiling plasterwork in corners and centre of ceiling, which suggests a C18 room altered in C19. Leather-covered door into service wing kitchen and small service stair to rear under outshut roof. Six-panel door from outshut into older range. Two-panel fielded-panelled door from kitchen into short corridor to back door.
Lofted outbuilding has 6 pegged oak collar trusses with notched collars probably later C18 and the low loft windows have shutters. Two doors at end into loft of earlier range. This has 5 pegged collar trusses, one against wall of service range of main house. Ground floor of early range has some pine joists of uncertain date and no fireplace, fireplace opens into ground floor of lofted outbuilding, with oak lintel and recess for copper in corner.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a good late Georgian small gentry house with attached early C18 range and lofted outbuilding.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29505220

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2