Felbridge & District History Group

Blunden Shadbolt’s Legacy to Felbridge and Surrounding Area

Blunden Shadbolt was an architect based in Horley, Surrey, working from the turn of the 20^th century until 1946.  This document is comprised of three sections.  The first section traces the family life of Blunden Shadbolt.  The second section covers influences and some of his early works that led to him establishing a distinctive Tudor revival style of traditionally built houses, frequently re-cycling materials from demolished structures.  The third section will focus on Shadbolt houses that can be found in Felbridge and the surrounding area. The documents concludes with an Appendix that lists all Shadbolt works known to date, together with a list of un-traced and suspected works.

 

Family life

Blunden Shadbolt was born in Upper Tooting, Surrey, on 31^st May 1879, the son of Charles Percival Shadbolt and his wife Kate Hannah Constable née Blunden. 

 

The Shadbolt family came from a comfortable Victorian middleclass family, with a background in timber.  Blunden’s grandfather Charles Shadbolt was working as a Mahogany Broker living at Stamford Hill, Tottenham, Middlesex, in 1851.  Blunden’s father Charles Percival followed his father into the timber business working in a Broker’s Office by 1871, being listed as a Timber Merchant in 1881.  On 28^th July 1877 Charles Percival Shadbolt was also given the Freedom of the City, as a Citizen and Mason of London. 

 

The Blunden family originate from Long Melford, Suffolk, where Kate’s father (Thomas) was listed as a farmer in 1841, an Estate Agent in 1851 and an Auctioneer and Appraiser in 1861.  Sadly Kate lost both parents in quick succession, her father dying in October 1862 and her mother (Hannah) dying in the spring of 1864.  By 1871 Kate and her two brothers (Thomas and William) and blind sister (Charlotte) had moved from Long Melford to 10, WynneGardens, Brixton, Surrey.  Here Thomas worked as a Warehouseman and William as a Merchant’s clerk and, together with their father’s inheritance of about £1,500, the family was living comfortably enough to have a general servant in their household.

 

On 9^th February 1875 Charles Percival Shadbolt married Kate Hannah Constable Blunden at St Anne’s, Wandsworth, and they made their home at Wickham Lodge, 13, At Ann’s Hill, Wandsworth Common.  In 1876 Charles and Kate had their first child, Evelyn Kate Annie, followed in 1878 by Mary Grace Kate.  Blunden was born next in 1879 (being given his mother’s surname as a first name) and to complete the family, Lily was born in 1880 but sadly she died after only a few months in the winter of 1880.

 

In 1881 the Shadbolt household, still at Wickham Lodge, also included Kate’s brother William, by then working as a Banker’s clerk, and two domestic servants.  Sadly Blunden’s father Charles contracted smallpox later that year and died, aged just thirty-six, on 20^th October 1881, leaving personal effects to the value of £1,300 to Kate to bring up their three surviving children, all under the age of five.

 

The next few years saw Blunden moving several times to a succession of boarding schools.  In around 1882 he had moved to Black Heath, London, and around 1885 to Godalming, Surrey.  By 1891 Kate Shadbolt had taken her family back to Suffolk and Blunden had been removed from boarding school and had joined the family living at Park Cottage, Gallows Hill, Sudbury.  By then Kate’s sister Charlotte had joined the household, the family living on Kate’s private means.  It is apparent from the articles written by Donald Campbell and David Schenck that these early school years of Blunden’s life were fairly unhappy having lost his father and a male presence in the household at a very young age and not really settling at any of the schools he was sent to.  His mother, probably through the grief of loosing first her parents, a child and then her husband in less than twenty year turned to religion for solace.  As a result, when Blunden returned from schooling to his family unit it was in a female dominated, religious household.

 

At about the age of seventeen, Blunden went to work in an architect’s office in Chelmsford, Essex, although he was not articled as a trainee.  It was here that he met architect and surveyor Arthur Kelway Bamber, who when he moved to Horley to be near his brother Charles Kelway Bamber who lived at Priestlands, Vicarage Road, (a 17^th century Grade II listed property), invited Blunden to join him at his offices in Station Road.  Thus Blunden and his family, consisting of his mother, aunt (Charlotte) and two sisters (Evelyn and Mary), moved from Chelmsford to Fir Villa, Brighton Road, Horley, in 1898.

 

Arthur Kelway Bamber, besides being an architect and surveyor, was also a bit of an inventor, applying for at least five patents during his life time from such diverse things as improving the means for securing hats to heads, to improvements to water taps.  However, the area that seems to have most interested Bamber was improvements to the surfaces of tennis and badminton courts through the laying of continuous paving and flooring.  During his life Bamber made applications for at least three patents for this, one in June 1922, one in February 1924 and one in May 1936.

 

Unfortunately for Blunden, Arthur Kelway Bamber discontinued his practise in Horley after a year and moved to Brighton, E Sussex, so Blunden was forced to find another office in which to continue his training.  This necessitated him travelling to London where he joined George A Hall FRIBA who worked with architect E Guy Lewis out of offices in Victoria Street, London.  At the end of his training Blunden returned to live with his mother, aunt and sisters at Fir Villa.  Between 1901 and c1906 the Shadbolt family lived at Thorn’s Road, Horley, moving to Church Road in 1907.  The Shadbolt family remained here until 1908 when they moved to Gainsborough Lodge, Massetts Road, Horley, a 10-roomed house that Blunden had designed for his mother; Kate Shadbolt was to live out the rest of her life here, dying in 1912, aged sixty-six.  As a point of interest, Blunden’s aunt Charlotte died in 1916 aged seventy-one, his sister Mary married Thomas Weston in 1914 and had at least one daughter, Mary Joyce Kate, born in the Eastbourne area in 1917 implying that the Weston family moved from the Horley area, and his sister Evelyn died unmarried, in the Hastings area in 1954, aged seventy-eight.

 

In 1910 Blunden applied for and was accepted as a Licentiate member of the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and in 1913 he was accepted as a member of the ISE (Institute of Structural Engineers).  In 1917, possibly because of the loss of his immediate family either through death, marriage or leaving the area, Blunden had left Gainsborough Lodge and taken up residence in Oakwood Road, Horley, where he remained until 1921.  Between 1921 and 1922 Blunden was living at 105, Lumley   Road, Horley, before moving to Balcombe Road, Horley, returning to 105, Lumley Road between 1924 and 1925.  In 1926 Blunden could be found residing at 53, Station Road returning to Balcombe Road in 1926.

 

At the time of his marriage, Blunden was listed as lodging in Moses Lane, Horley, when he married Joyce   Elizabeth Woodward Court on 2^nd August 1927.  Joyce had been born in 1905, the daughter of Ernest and Annie Court, who in 1911 were recorded as a Draper and Draper’s assistant living at Warwick House, Station Road, Hawkhurst, Kent, along with two other daughters, Brenda Woodward and Margaret Winifred, aged three and eleven months respectively.  After their marriage, Blunden and his new wife Joyce took up residence at Balcombe Road before moving to above his office at 32, Victoria Road.

 

In 1930 Blunden purchased a wedge-shaped plot of land, being part of an orchard belonging to Brooklyn in Salfords, Surrey, owned by Lady Galloway, the widow of Randolph Henry Stewart, 11^th Earl of Galloway, who had died in 1920.  Blunden’s intention was to build a house for himself and his family here that he called Orchards (for further information about the house see below).  Around this time Blunden also purchased an old granary from a farm in Copthorne, dismantled it and transported it to his garden at Orchards with the intension of converting it as a house (for further information about the house see below).  In 1931 Blunden and Joyce were still living above his office at Victoria Road where their first daughter, Elizabeth Grace, was born.  The family then moved to the completed Orchards in 1932 where their second daughter, Joyce Kate, was born in 1933.  Sadly, in 1934, Blunden was forced to sell Orchards due to financial difficulties brought about by slow payments and the Shadbolt family moved to The Granary that had by then been erected in the grounds of Orchards and where Blunden remained for the rest of his life, his surviving family moving from the property in 1951. 

 

Blunden continued working as an architect until the World War II terminated his career and put an end to any new construction work.  However, from 1941 Blunden used his expertise as an architect and structural engineer advising local councils on the structural repair of buildings damaged by bombing, particularly in Bromley, Catford and Lewisham, retiring in 1946.  Sadly on 2^nd June 1949 Blunden was knocked off his bicycle and was admitted to Redhill County Hospital with a fractured thigh.  Whilst there he was diagnosed with dormant diabetes, then developed pneumonia and died on 13^th July 1949, aged seventy.

Influences and early work leading to an established style

As already established above, Blunden Shadbolt spent much of his early life on the move and the places he lived in all had many old timber-framed structures that must have left an impression, being manifested in his later established style of architecture.  Blackheath had some quirky architecture like the 18^th century Pagoda built as a summer house for the Earl of Cardigan, Godalming boasts over 200 listed buildings, many found in Church Street, whilst Sudbury has such gems as the 15^th century Grade I listed timber-framed Salter’s Hall and the 13^th century Grade I listed, half-timbered Lavenham Priory, and Chelmsford has several 16^th and 17^th century buildings like the Bay Horse Inn, Moulsham Street.    

 

Another major influence reflected in Blunden’s later established style was the concept and architectural design of the Arts and Crafts Movement, in particular the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens and Charles Francis Annesley Voysey.  Lutyens designed houses with complex façades, numerous gables in front of the main body of the house, using traditional materials and old methods of construction.  His properties were built using a mixture of tile hanging, timber framing with green oak, lime wash, stock bricks and dressed sandstone, all materials being locally derived producing a rich visual texture allowing the building to be at- one with its surroundings (for further details see Handout, Lutyens Grand Design for Felbridge, SJC 03/07).  Charles Francis Annesley Voysey drew away from the ornate and intricate look that so many architects and designers favoured during Victorian times.  He used straight lines, gentle curves and open spaces, taking a somewhat minimalist approach to architecture with the belief that less is more, favouring plain white splatter-dash stucco walls with the occasional use of brick to emphasise an external feature.  A close parallel with Voysey can be seen in the work of the Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, best known for the design of The Glasgow School of Art, and whose work can also be found in Felbridge.

 

The Arts and Crafts Movement was an international movement in decorative and fine arts that flourished at the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th century.  It was inspired by the writings of architect Augustus Pugin, writer John Ruskin and artist William Morris.  The Arts and Crafts philosophy was partially derived from John Ruskin’s social belief that the moral and social health of a nation related to the qualities of its architecture and nature of work.  Thus the Arts and Crafts Movement favoured craft production over industrial manufacture and were concerned with the loss of traditional skills.  This concept, coupled with the Gothic Revival as advocated by people like Augustus Pugin who believed that architecture should reflect truth to material, structure and function, was grasped by William Morris.  William Morris expanded this ideal and used the concept to produce products that were simple in form, without the excesses prevalent of the Victorian era, frequently left slightly unfinished to express the qualities of the materials used.  He took his inspiration from British flora and fauna, being also inspired by the vernacular and domestic traditions of the British countryside.     

 

By the end of the 19^th century, Arts and Crafts design in houses and domestic interiors was the dominant style in Britain, characterised by the work of such architects as Lutyens and Voysey.  Their buildings look appropriate for their locality using local materials, giving the appearance of emerging from the location, incorporating the ideas of traditional-looking houses drawn from local vernacular architectural forms, creating picturesque facades, frequently asymmetrical, built with construction techniques of the past.     

 

Based on these principles, the Arts and Crafts Movement of the 1890s and 1900s was England’s foremost contribution to world architecture, creating an enthusiasm for old Englishness expressed in revivals of timber-framed and mock-Tudor styles, some incorporating genuine old buildings.  The British influence of truth to materials, structure and function was felt in Europe until the 1930’s when Modernism displaced the style and ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement, although it continued among craftsman, designers and town planners for many years to come in Britain.  

 

It is against this background that Blunden Shadbolt began his career as an architect, working from home at Fir Villa, Brighton Road, Horley, in 1900.  By 1905 Blunden had set up an office in Victoria Road, close to Horley Station, which he shared with estate agents and auctioneers Hallett & Ballard between 1905 and 1909.  Working in such close proximity to these estate agents and auctioneers must have had some bearing on Blunden and his work.  He must have been aware of the buildings that were being auctioned through Hallett & Ballard and perhaps realised opportunities for potential clients requiring restoration, conversion or extension to the properties they purchased or the possibility of re-claimed building materials from structures ear-marked for demolition, a feature of Blunden’s designs that he was to become known for. 

 

By 1905 Blunden had completed designs for several cottages and houses in both the local area and further afield, the designs being typical of the period and not in the style that he was later to establish and make his own.  He had also completed the first of several restoration/conversion/extension projects he would undertake during his career.  The first of such projects was the restoration and extension of Batchelors Farm, Emms Lane, Barnes Green, Horsham, W Sussex, extending a brick-built, tenanted farmhouse dating to 1610 into a longer, half-timbered dwelling with two jettied face-wings.

 

Between the years 1906 and 1910 Blunden’s designs began to reflect Voysey characteristics as found at Holybank, Chorleywood, built about 1900, The Pastures, Rutland, built in 1901, Vodin (now known as Little Court), Pyrford Common, Woking, built in 1902 and Little Holme, Upper Guildown Road, Guildford, built about 1906.  All these buildings have a distinctive Voysey feature of an arch shape on the front elevation, framing the entrance either to the mid rail or down to the ground.  Blunden picked up on this feature incorporating it in his designs for The Coppice, Reigate, built in 1906 and Kenworth, 4, Nelson Road, Bognor Regis, built in 1906/7, where the arch shape encompasses a ground floor window and the roofline of a forward projecting gable, both on the front elevation;  and the feature can also be found on the house he designed for his mother, Gainsborough Lodge, 39, Massetts Road, Horley, built in 1908/9 where the arch shape is incorporated as a relief above a first floor window as well as the line of the forward facing projecting gable on the front elevation.  The Coppice and Kenworth are also rendered in the Voysey preferred white splatter-dash stucco, with a hint of mock-Tudor, whilst Gainsborough Lodge incorporates splatter-dash stucco and red brick but no sign of mock-Tudor.  Also in 1906, Blunden produced several basic designs, for which many variations could be made, for the AldwickBay estate, Bognor Regis, and the Charlwood estate, Surrey, and in 1914 he worked on Pyrford Green House, Pyrford,  and created designs for the Pyrford Green estate, working in the same area that Voysey had already designed the house called Vodin.

 

Along side the new builds, Blunden worked on several restoration/extension of old buildings projects including: The Elms, Newdigate, Surrey, for Lady Abdy; a house in Montpelier Crescent, Brighton, E Sussex; Brook Cottage, Effingham Road, Copthorne, W Sussex (see below); Elizabethan Cottage, Eastbourne Road, Blindley Heath, Surrey (see below); Tifters Farm, Charlwood, Surrey, for R Johnson Esq; Great Lake Farm, Langshott Lane, Horley; and Rowley Farm, Lowfield Heath, Surrey, most of which have now been listed.  This work must have given Blunden first hand experience of how old structures were built and must have formulated in his mind the idea of moving away from mock-Tudor to a reinterpretation of medieval building practises, as by the mid 1920’s he had established ‘his’ style, his buildings reflecting a switch from the influences of Voysey to that of Lutyens. 

 

Perhaps some of the first houses to mark Blunden’s burgeoning Tudor revival style can be found in Langshott Lane, Horley, built in 1923, and The Knapp, 1, Balcombe Gardens, Horley, built in 1924 for Mrs Ethel Ross, wife of local solicitor Henry Harrison Stockdale Ross.  Also in 1924 Blunden created a house for the Ideal Home exhibition built by Mr Daniels of Horley, out of re-claimed materials salvaged from an old Friar house in Horley dating to the 1400’s.  This exhibition house, now called Monks Rest, was viewed by thousands in 1924, including George VI.  It was then dismantled and reconstructed in its current location at the foot of Hillside Road in Pinner, Middlesex, completed in 1926.

 

Over the next couple of years Blunden built a series of houses using re-claimed materials, including:

Beacon House, Churt Road, Hindhead, Surrey, built by Tom Cooper for stockbroker Mr da Costa who wanted a unique house; Breinton, Belmont Park Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, built for Mrs Carless from re-claimed materials from Sussex and Holyhead; Cranmer Cottage, Pebble Hill Road,Betchworth, Surrey, built for Mr Rundle from re-claimed materials from a cottage at Mitcham in Surrey; Edmundsbury, Beverley Lane, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, built for Mr and Mr Hird using Tudor bricks and ancient beams transported from Bury St Edmunds, probably from Hardwick House, which was dismantled in 1926/7 for building materials; and The Old House (now known as Whorne’s Place), 254, Petersham Road, Petersham, Richmond-upon-Thames, built for Dr Bell from materials that cost £600 for a demolished barn on Sir Whorne’s Cuxton estate in Kent.  Not all of Blunden’s houses used old materials but when re-claimed materials were used they came mainly from old barns and Tudor cottages.  Blunden did not demolish old structures for the sake of it but if the buildings were derelict and beyond saving he considered it to be morally inexcusable not to use their materials.  In turn, the use of such materials gave his properties the instant appearance of antiquity, as though always having been part of its surroundings.

 

By 1930 Blunden had established his own unique style combining all his architectural influences (in particular the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens), the ethos of the Arts and Crafts Movement of truth to nature and the use of old re-claimed building materials.  Thus the culmination of all these aspects of Blunden Shadbolt’s architecture can be found within the Cross Oak Conservation Area at Salfords, Horley.

 

The Cross Oak Lane Conservation Area was designated in 1990 and contains seven Blunden Shadbolt houses; all built between 1930 and 1935 and encompasses the site of what was once Strutfield Farm, the old farmhouse having been demolished at the turn of the 20^th century.  In 1930 the property consisted of an old orchard and land belonging to a house called Brooklyn (formerly known as Watt’s Farm), in the ownership of Lady Galloway (see above).  In 1930 Blunden Shadbolt bought a portion of the old orchard off Cross Oak Lane on which to build his family home, Orchards (now known as Cross Oak House).  The house stands in just over one and half acres overlooking open countryside and the adjoining farmland.  Orchards incorporates several of Blunden’s trademark features and is in total harmony with its surroundings, achieved by the use of old re-claimed building materials such as ancient stone, brick, tiles and oak beams, creating a mellow and rambling structure.  Internal trademark features include a brick beehive cowl fireplace set within an inglenook, doors made from wooden planks with wooden latches and leather draw strings, as well as minstrel galleries and a wooden staircase.

 

Around the time that Orchards was being built, Blunden acquired an 18^th century granary from a farm in Copthorne.  He paid just £28 for the structure, dismantled it and had transported to the garden of Orchards where he re-built it as a house, on its original straddle stones.  In 1933 Blunden built a two-bedroom cottage with a catslide roof in another part of Orchards’ garden for his un-married sister, Evelyn, who rented it to two sisters known as ‘old Oggs’, thus the cottage became known as Oggs Cottage (now The Nest).  Later in 1933 Blunden found himself in financial difficulties and had to sell Orchards; he and his family moving to the smaller, single storey dwelling, The Granary. 

 

Orchards was sold to Richard Dermott Thompson on his retirement from the Indian Railways; he also purchased the remainder of Brooklyn’s orchard to develop with houses designed by Blunden Shadbolt.  Thus in 1934 four more houses were built in the area: Brooklyn Cottage and jettied garage, a three-bedroom house built for Richard Thompson who rented the property to Henry Brooke Greville and his wife Cecilia Ada née Hervey-Bathurst; Old Straddles, another three-bedroom house commissioned by Ernest William Gillett, with a thatched garage and brick drive; Mole Cottage a four-bedroom house for Ronald Lindsay and Lorna Dugmar Moss; and Woodbrook, a four-bedroom house set in ten acres for the Hon. Algernon Richard Hervey-Bathurst (brother of Cecilia Greville of Brooklyn Cottage) and his wife Margaret, completed in 1935; this was the last house to be built of the Thompson/Shadbolt collaboration.  The approach to this house was originally along a driveway flanked by old apple trees, typical of Blunden’s desire to retain existing vegetation to give the newly constructed property the impression of age and long standing within its surroundings.

 

This collection of houses typifies the fully established Shadbolt style incorporating all the characteristics he perfected during his career as an architect.  Typical characteristics include: use of re-claimed materials such as: old clay peg tiles complete with moss or lichen, old oak beams and irregular timber framing, stone, old bricks often laid in decorative, herringbone and irregular bonds, often painted; irregular ridge lines, steep 48 degree pitches, gabled roof forms, catslide roofs; prominent chimneys often to the front of the buildings with decreasing roofed stages to the chimneystack as it rises; deep cross-wings often breaking at the ridge; irregular placement of windows, which are generally casement, usually lead light and single glazed to give the best reflections.  Internal characteristics include: exposed re-claimed beams, wooden flooring, doors made from wooden planks with wooden latches and leather draw strings, minstrel galleries, re-claimed wood panelling, exposed wooden staircases and brick beehive cowl fireplaces set within inglenooks.  Secondary buildings are often clad in black feather-edge boarding and re-claimed pantiles or thatch.  Drives and paths were either gravelled or laid with re-claimed brick. 

 

At the same time as working with Richard Thompson, Blunden was also working with Mr Frederick H Weiss of Waynefleet Development Company in Esher, Surrey.  In 1931/2 Blunden designed four dwellings in Esher Place Avenue for Weiss’ Esher Place estate: Trees, Beam Ends, no. 41 and St Giles, next to Beam Ends.  All four properties were four or five bedroom, detached houses, boasting a wealth of Blunden’s characteristic features including: timber framing with brick in-fill, exposed wooden beams and traditional oak doors and joinery.  In 1937 Blunden designed Cobblestones, 5, Moor Lane (the plot originally part of the Esher Place estate), built as a wedding present for Weiss’s seventeen year old daughter, Muriel, on her marriage to Walter Mellard Frost in 1938.  Muriel and Walter Mellard Frost moved into the house in June 1938 and the property remained in the same ownership and occupation until November 2014.

Cobblestones is predominantly built of yellow stock bricks on a projecting plinth with occasional red or black bricks and stone blocks, mainly in stretcher bond.  There is some timber-framing where the brick infilling is varied by being laid in horizontal, vertical and diagonal blocks.  Roofs are tiled with brick chimneystacks.  Windows throughout are metal-framed casements with leaded lights.  The attached outbuildings, retained from the original site, are brick with pantiled roofs, plank doors with studs and hinges at the eastern end.  In keeping with Blunden’s ethos of using re-claimed materials, the 19^th century staircase to Cobblestones was discovered by Walter Frost in Sunbury, Surrey, when a house was being demolished.

The last property that Blunden designed for Frederick Weiss was Kingsmead at 11, Pelhams Walk, Esher, in 1939.  This property is completely different to Blunden’s established Tudor revival style, being more pared down, reverting the influences of Voysey and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  The house has white walls under a tiled roof, clean lines and large casement windows, letting in copious amounts of light; the house set in a split-level garden.

 

After the collaborations with Weiss and Thompson, Blunden continued to work on a variety of projects including a development at Daisy Hill in Outwood, Surrey, for Mr Candelin, a builder of German origin from Reigate.  Blunden even designed an extension for Orchards when the Booty family purchased it from Richard Thompson, but with the on-set of World War II and the decline and eventual cessation of construction, Blunden spent the last years of his career advising on the structural repair of houses damaged due to enemy action, retiring in 1946.  After nearly half a century, Blunden left an architectural legacy of houses with picturesque gables, roof dormers and irregularity, establishing a unique style of building modern houses in the Tudor style, often using re-claimed oak beams and materials, which he developed as his own trademark features.  Even after his death in 1949, Shadbolt designs were still being constructed.  At least two un-executed Shadbolt designs in the possession of Eric Jordan, a young trainee architect that Blunden had taken on in the early 1930’s, were built in Ifield Road, Charlwood, Surrey, working with Blunden’s old builder Cecil Wickens, the houses being called Lumberwood and Old Oaks.

 

Felbridge and Surrounding Area

There are at least three Blunden Shadbolt houses in Felbridge and its immediate surrounding area, plus a further two that are locally believed to be attributed to him.

 

Paygate, West Park Road, Newchapel

Paygate is situated on the south side of West Park Road (B2028) between the roundabout at Newchapel and Haskins Garden Centre at Snowhill.  The property was a new build for Blunden (using re-claimed materials) and takes its name from the surrounding woodland known as Paygate Wood.

 

Like many of Blunden’s buildings there has been much conjecture about the age of Paygate.  Until recently it was believed to have been an old Tudor cottage that had been extended and modernised over the years but now it has been recognised as a Shadbolt design, built circa 1937, which has in turn been extended much more recently, after the death of Blunden in 1949. 

 

Tracing the history of the plot it is evident that it originates as a clearing out of Paygate Wood.  On the Rocque map of 1768 the plot is shown as partially wooded, the front half still woodland but the back half cleared, probably forming part of the holding adjacent to the plot, a property known as Worger Cottage.  By 1870, the O/S map shows the site of Paygate as being completely cleared, open land (field no. 616, 3.2 acres and field 61,1.8 acres) and it has remained as such ever since.  By 1869 the plot was part of the West Park Estate owned by the Palmer (of biscuit fame) family until 1936 when Alfred Palmer died and the Estate was put up for auction on 17^th September 1936 (for further information see Handout, West Park Estate, SJC 04/99).  The West Park Estate sale catalogue particulars indicate that the plot formed Lot 39, described thus:

 

Two Accommodation Pasture Fields

 

Area: 5a 0r 19p

Tenancy: In hand

Tithe Rent Charge, Parish of Horne £0 16 4

The Lot has a main road frontage

 

The enclosures have a frontage of about 490 feet to the main Lingfield Road in which Company’s Water Mains are available

 

It has not yet been possible to determine who purchased or developed this plot, or when, as production of many of the useful records, such as the Electoral Roll and O/S maps, was disrupted during the war years.  It would seem highly unlikely that the house was built during the war as most construction work ceased so it was probably constructed between 1936 and 1939.  Unfortunately the dwelling’s name ‘Paygate’ does not appear in the Electoral Rolls until 1945 but the house may well appear in the Rolls between 1936/9 as an un-named property in West   Park Road.  What is known is that in 1945 the property was called Paygate and was in the occupation of David and Irene Johnstone.  The couple were not living in the Felbridge area in 1939 (the last official Electoral Roll before the war) so must have moved into the area/property between 1939 and 1945.  

 

Paygate was built out of re-claimed materials with exposed timber framing, in-filled with Blunden’s characteristic use of old bricks laid in decorative, herringbone and irregular bonds; the bottom sections left un-painted with the in-fill above the mid-rail rendered and painted white.  The roof is clad with seven rows of Horsham slabs graduating ever smaller as they spread up the roof, topped off with red clay tiles to the ridge.  The front elevation has a cross-wing on the east end with main front door under and several dormer windows.  The rear elevation has a continuation of the cross-wing projection, a catslide roof and more dormer windows; all the windows being leaded lights.  The interior has a wealth of exposed beams, solid wood doors and floors and a brick beehive cowl fireplace.  Originally built as a four bedroom dwelling, in 2004 the main structure of the house was sympathetically extended to the west making it now a three bedroom dwelling with en-suite and dressing-room for the master bedroom, with a separate bathroom and large landing.      

 

The Old House Inn, Effingham Road, Copthorne

The Old House Inn (formerly known as Brook Cottage) is situated on the south side of the Effingham Road (B2037) between Copthorne and Burstow.  The property was not a new build for Blunden but a conversion/extension of an already existing structure.

 

Like Paygate, there has also been much conjecture about the age of the Old House Inn, ranging from an old workman’s cottage through to an early 20^th century build.  What is evident is that by tracing the history of the plot, the Rocque Map of Surrey, which is usually reliable particularly for properties on the roadside, shows nothing on the site in 1768, just open land.  Again the Draft O/S map of 1809 shows the plot devoid of any structure, although this map is not very reliable for depicting small buildings so there is the possibility that the surveyor may have missed it.  However, it is clear from this map that the brook had not yet been diverted, so if the property’s original name of Brook Cottage is contemporary to its construction, then it must have been built as a house after the brook was created to drain the common.

 

The first depiction of a building on the plot appears on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1870, showing a long, thin non-residential structure (parallel to the road) on the plot with an open-sided structure attached to the west end, it is therefore fairly safe to assume that by 1870 something had been constructed on the plot.  By 1912, the O/S map (published in 1912 but surveyed in 1910) again depicts the structure but by then it had been extended to the south and east and was depicted as a dwelling with a well. 

 

By overlaying the 1912 O/S map onto a Google Earth image of the plot made in 2013, there is confirmation that part of the current structure is in the same location as that depicted in 1912.  The 1912 depiction when overlain on a floor plan of the property from the 2011 Sale Catalogue also shows that a number of the walls are in the same positions.  Also, by looking at early photographs of the property it is evident that the structure has been further extended to create the building as it is today.

 

Information about Brook Cottage can be found in a booklet entitled Old World Homes, printed in 1923 for Country Gardens Estates (London) Ltd, a company that specialised in development and building projects, established in Pinner, Middlesex, in 1912 (incorporated in 1922).  The booklet featured six of Blunden’s building, one of which was Brook Cottage (now the Old House Inn).  The extract, summarised by Donald Campbell for his article on Blunden Shadbolt – Architect of the House Desirable, records that:

‘Brook Cottage was developed from the nucleus of a small barn and low potting shed, the Ideal Home Magazine of 1923 tells us “from the road this small home presents a charming picture of a half-timbered, oak beamed cottage, with unexpected angles, latticed windows, characteristic chimneys, and an old tiled roof, who’s softly mingled shades of green, brown and bluish-bronze are made even more beautiful by the delicate crusting of moss.  The porch is garlanded with honeysuckle, and the old cow-gate door, with its heavy iron bars, is flanked by sturdy oaken seats.  The letter box let into the lintel and the heavy iron bell-chain are happily in keeping with the antiquity of the place.”  Shadbolt later extended the house so that it was impossible to identify the join proving the mastery of his touch in developing the original structure’.

 

It would appear then that Brook Cottage, as described in the booklet, was converted from a barn and potting shed (the structures depicted on the 1870 O/S map) and was a dwelling at the time of publication.  To narrow the date still further for the conversion one must look at the data supplied by census entries.  The first conclusive evidence for a dwelling known as Brook House on Effingham Road can be found in the 1911 census when the house was in the occupation of Dorothy Mabel Metcalfe-Smith and her servant Matilda Boyle.  This implies that the conversion took place sometime between 1901 and 1911.

 

The earliest part of the structure is the two bays at the front of the property with the wide stable door entering into it from the front.  The two bays are 11 foot wide and they are both 10 foot long.  There is a 20^th century ‘inglenook’ fireplace added to the east of the structure, although the chamfers on the beams indicate that the timber structure originally extended further to the east.  The timbers in the two bays are predominantly re-used with a wide mixture of scantlings and finishes.  The wall plates (although re-used) and jowls indicate that this was originally a single storey structure.

 

There are two jowl posts visible on the frame dividing the two bays, the southern one is a gunstock style and the northern one is just a slight swelling of the timber, although this northern post is a re-used wall plate.  The re-used timbers have been rotated in their new locations so that the previously used top and bottom faces are now on the sides.  The main timbers are chamfered, but this is roughly done and is probably not for decoration, but more to prevent animals damaging themselves on the timber corners.

 

The small space to the west of the original range exposes a fragment of the original end wall framing, showing that it had very slightly curved (nearly straight) short wind-braces.  The west end of the rear wall plate is considerably weathered, again indicating that the original structure did not extend any further to the west.  A 20^th century chimney had been installed against the west end of the two bays, although this has now been blocked up and part of the stack removed.

 

The very large stable door in the east bay has blacksmith made hinges and bolts, the reinforcing timber slats on the back appear to be of a later date compared to the weathered oak panels of the door.  The lock on the door is typical of an 18^th century design, although there is no evidence that the lock is contemporary to the construction of the door and it would be unusual for a stable door to be locked with a key.

 

There are joist trimmers to indicate access to the roof space was made at the west end of both bays.  The west bay roof access has been blocked using modern timbers and would therefore appear to have been the access used most recently.  The access in the east bay (against the central frame) is smaller and possible little more than a ladder access to the roof storage space.  The infill timbers are of a similar style to the rest of the floor joists and therefore it probably went out of use in antiquity.  All of the floor joists rest upon the tie-beams rather than being jointed into them, this implies that the flooring over to generate a storage space in the roof void was a later addition to the structure.  However, the floor joists are mainly laid flatways rather than on their narrow edge which is a characteristic of earlier buildings.

 

Accepting that this was most probably constructed as an agricultural building, dating the structure is more difficult as these lower quality structures were less likely to follow popular construction styles in the same way as new houses did.  However, the general scantling and the use of short almost straight wind bracing make it plausible that this structure dates to the end of the 17^th century or from the early 18^th century.

 

This humble structure was then converted and extended by Blunden to create Brook Cottage and by 1908 Dorothy Mabel Metcalf-Smith had taken up occupation.

 

Dorothy Mabel Metcalfe-Smith 

Dorothy was born Dorothy Mabel Lucy (sometimes known as Lucy or Lucy Dorothy) Metcalfe Smith (surname not hyphenated) in 1887, the daughter of Archibald Francis Metcalfe Smith and his wife Maud Angela née Coxon.  Archibald came from a fairly wealthy Victorian family background, his father John being a banker.  Besides Dorothy, Archibald and Maud had one other daughter, Mary Maud Violet (known as Violet) born in 1885.  Sadly Archibald died in 1889, followed seven years later by Maud, leaving Dorothy and Violet orphans at the ages of nine and eleven respectively.  Violet went to live with her grandparents and Dorothy went to live with her uncle Reginald Metcalfe Smith and his family.  At their mother’s death on 26^th May 1896, Maud left £74 5/-, which went to Reginald, this implies that Archibald had left the bulk of his estate to his daughters at his death in 1889 as in later documentary records both Dorothy and Violet are listed as having ‘independent means’ ie: wealth.

 

The most likely date that Dorothy moved to Brook Cottage, considering her status and means, would be when she reached adulthood at the age of twenty-one, which would have been in 1908.  However, her stay at Brook Cottage did not last long and in June/July 1911 it was advertised for auction in the Dorking & Leatherhead Advertiser:

 

Messrs. Hallet & Ballard

Messrs. Hallet & Ballard Brook Cottage, Copthorne, Sussex

This quaint old black and white Sussex Country Cottage in 1 acre of gardens with possessions by auction (unless previously sold) by Hallet and Ballard at their property sales room.

 

The reason for the sale was that Dorothy and her sister had decided to emigrate to Canada and can be found on the passenger list of HMS Royal Edward bound for Vancouver in July 1912.  In Vancouver, Dorothy worked as a nurse and married William Francis Stewart, son of Sir Henry Stewart of Ireland and his wife Mary née Mansfield, on 21^st December 1923; Dorothy died in Canada in 1956.

 

It has not yet been possible to determine who purchased Brook Cottage in 1911 but the next resident found living at the property is Esther Bright.

 

Esther Bright

Esther Bright was the daughter of Jacob Bright; a former cotton-mill manager turned Liberal MP for South West Manchester, who married Ursula Mellor, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, on 13^th September 1855.  Besides Esther who was born in 1868, Jacob and Ursula had at least four other children, Paul born in 1857, Sydney Mellor born in 1861, Leigh Courtauld born in 1864 and John Gratton born in 1870.  Sadly the first two boys died in infancy. 

 

The Brights held what were known at the time as ‘radical Liberal’ views, in particular the advancement of women's causes.  Jacob was a peace campaigner and supported women's suffrage and came to be known as ‘the Apostle to the Women’.  In 1866 Ursula Bright signed the petition in favour of women's suffrage presented to parliament and was a member of the Manchester Women's Suffrage Society, formed in 1867.  She worked continuously for the society and its London-based sister until 1890 at the insistence of the Pankhursts.  In 1870 the Brights became founder members of the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.  Ursula was a member of the executive committee of the Married Women's Property Committee for the duration of its existence (1868-82) as well as treasurer between 1874 and 1882 when the Act was finally passed.  Ursula was also made honorary secretary of the Women's Franchise League.  Unlike the main National Society for Women's Suffrage, the league was concerned with supporting the enfranchisement of married women as well as of widows and spinsters.  Her work with the league resulted in the successful inclusion in the Local Government Act of 1894 of the right of married women to all local franchises.

 

The Brights were also keen supporters of home-rule and Ursula was also interested in the abolition of the House of Lords and had a wide circle of artistic and political friends on both sides of the Atlantic.  In the 1890’s Ursula was a member of the revising committee for The Woman's Bible and became interested in theosophy and Esther, heavily influenced by her mother’s views and opinions, eventually joined the Theosophical Society on 7th September 1891 and was an active worker for many humanitarian movements.    

 

After the death of Jacob Bright on 7^th November 1899, the central committee of the Society for Women's Suffrage passed a resolution recognising his contribution to the movement.  Esther, who never married, continued to live with her mother who, in later life, suffered with severe osteoarthritis.  A frequent visitor to their house was Annie Besant (a prominent British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self-rule) and in 1898 Ursula gave £3000 to the Theosophical headquarters in northern India.  Ursula Bright died on 12^th March 1915 at her home at 82, Drayton Gardens, Kensington, London, leaving her entire estate of £5848 3s 2d to Esther.     

 

Sometime between the death of her mother in 1915 and 1920 Esther moved from London to Brook Cottage and during her time there became a member of the Women’s Freedom League.  Esther lived at Brook Cottage until 1927/8 and between 1928 and 1930 no-one appears in the Electoral Roll as residing at the property.   However, by 1931 and until 1936, Esther’s nephews, Richard Gratton Bright and Pennington Mellor Bright (sons of her brother John Gratton Bright) occupied the property.  Prior to living at Brook Cottage the two nephews had been residing at The Old Cottage, Sandy Lane, Bletchingley, Surrey, which itself looks a lot like a Blunden Shadbolt. 

 

By 1937 the Brights had left Brook Cottage, which was then in the occupation of Percy Redknap and his wife May having moved from Banstead Village, Surrey, where May had been Proprietress of The Old Cottage Tea Rooms operating from Winkworth Cottage.  It is possible that during the Redknap’s time at Brook Cottage it too became a commercial business premises, known as The Old House Tea Rooms, very similar in concept to the one May had run out of Winkworth Cottage, although without further documents this is speculation.  From an advertisement for The Old Cottage Tea Rooms, May Redknap was obviously known for ‘Home-Made Cakes’ and ‘Morning Coffee, Ices and noted Devonshire Teas’.  However, by the end of the war the couple had moved to Worthing in Sussex and John Baalham was living at the property.

 

Unfortunately nothing more is known about John Baalham, however at some point in time, Brook Cottage became established as a commercial business, run as The Old House Tea Rooms.  Local memories tell of a pair of elderly ladies running the Tea Rooms in the 1960’s before it was taken over by Mr and Mrs Dorman in the mid 1970’s who ran the business as The Old House Restaurant.  In 2011 the property was put up for sale and was purchased in 2012 by Cirrus Inns, co-founded by 333 Holdings founder Alex Langlands Pearse and Mark Askew (former executive head chefs at Gordon Ramsay Holdings) and is now run as the Old House Inn (Pub and Rooms), offering reasonably priced fine dining and accommodation.  

 

In conclusion, the Old House Inn is not a 16^th century converted farm worker’s cottage but a late 18^th/early 19^th century barn and potting shed that had been converted as a dwelling by Blunden sometime between 1901 and 1908.  The planning history for the property shows no alterations took place between 1948 and 1978 but at least five planning applications were made in the following decade and one more in 1991 before the property changed hands in 2012.  The dwelling is an early example of what was to become the established Shadbolt Tudor revival style.  As a dwelling it originally had seven rooms, which after several extensions, has become what is seen today, essentially a four bedroom house with five reception rooms and further ground floor rooms set in just over an acre of grounds, run as The Old House Inn. 

 

The exterior of the property has a multitude of roof lines giving the impression of numerous individual additions to the structure, but this is again a feature of Blunden’s work, there is also visible timber framing in-filled with bricks laid in decorative, herringbone and irregular bonds, painted white, and small leaded light windows.  The interior still retains many of Blunden’s established features including solid wood doors, inglenook fireplaces, exposed beams (all-be-it rather crude originals in the oldest part of the structure) and a galleried landing.  What began as a barn/potting shed became a dwelling house called Brook Cottage went on to become a commercial business premises operating as The Old House Tea Rooms, the Old House Restaurant and now the Old House Inn.    

 

Elizabethan Cottage, Eastbourne Road, Blindley Heath

Elizabethan Cottage is situated on the Common, adjacent to WhiteBridge, on the west side of the Eastbourne Road (A22) at the southern end of Blindley Heath village.  The property was not a new build for Blunden but a conversion/extension of an already existing house.

 

The Elizabethan Cottage is one of the oldest cottages in Blindley Heath, originally built as one dwelling known as Whitefoots, it has, over the centuries, been converted as two cottages, then three cottages, then back to two and is now a single dwelling once again, with a new name.  The house was originally of fairly high-status, probably home to a local yeoman but over the years the status of the building dropped to that of farm workers cottages before being re-elevated in status during the first half of the 20^th century. 

 

The house, along with its associated land, is located in a part of Blindley Heath that fell under the manor of Sheffield-Lingfield, for which there are limited surviving court records.  However, for much of the time the land was farmed with or as part of Blue Anchor Farm, formerly Blindley Heath Farm alias Hurst Farm, that fell under the manor of Walkhamsted/Lagham, the manorial holding for Felbridge [for further information see Handout, The Blue Anchor, Blindley Heath, JIC/SJC 03/12] and the cottage/cottages housed workers on the farm.

 

Information that can be gleaned from the Sheffield-Lingfield court books is that Richard Thorpe the elder, gentleman, held Whitefoots [Elizabethan Cottage] and ‘approximately 40 acres’ of land ‘near the bridge at Blindley Heath’, at the recording of his death in 1651, at a rent of 10d.  This Richard Thorpe is also the Richard Thorpe, gentleman of Worth, who is recorded in the Hedgecourt court books in 1651 holding Hedgecourt Farm (for further information on Richard Thorpe see Handout, Felmere, SJC 07/03i and Little Gibbshaven SJC 07/08).  On the death of Richard Thorpe the elder, the property passed to his eldest son and heir Richard who had already sold Whitefoots on the John Newman of Lingfield when his father’s death was recorded in the Sheffield-Lingfield court books in 1651. 

 

From the Sheffield-Lingfield court books it is evident that Whitefoots was a freehold property and as such has infrequent entries.  The next entry for Whitefoots is in 1677 when it is recorded that John Jacob had died holding ‘Whitefoots at a rent of 10d’.  Unfortunately the entry does not record how or when John Jacob acquired the property or to whom it passed to on his death.

 

The house is first depicted on the Rocque map of 1768, situated near the bridge, close to the main highway, and it again appears on the Draft O/S map of 1809.  In 1840 the house can be identified from the Godstone tithe map and apportionment as Whitefoot, by then already divided as two cottages, held by the executives of Robert Lucas esq. on plot 1195, a holding of thirty-two acres, which he had acquired on the death of his father Newton in 1790. 

 

In the census of 1861 the cottages appear to be un-occupied although the 1870 O/S map depicts the property as consisting of two cottages with an orchard in front, between the cottages and the road.  In 1871 the property was known as Bridge Cottages and housed three households, George Charman and his family, James Palmer and his family and Amos Cook and his family, all three men listed as agricultural labourers.  In 1891 the dwellings were known as White Foot Cottages and were home to just two households, George Charman and Amos Cook and their families, both men listed as farm labourers.  In 1891 George Charman was still in occupation in one of the cottages but George Broomfield (sometimes written as Bloomfield) had succeeded Amos Cook and occupied the second cottage, both men were listed as agricultural labourers.  In 1901 the cottages were called White Bridge Cottages and John Steadman and his family had succeeded George Charman but George Broomfield was still in occupation; John recorded as a carter on farm and George as a stockman on farm (the Blue Anchor Farm adjacent on the north).

 

In 1907 the property appears for sale as part of the Felcourt Estate as Lots 32, 33 and 34, described thus:

 

Lot 32

BLINDLEY HEATH

ENCLOSURE OF

Freehold Accommodation, Pasture, Meadow and Woodland

of about

16a 0r 17p

lying South of Lot 34 and bounded on the South by a stream

Nos. on Plan 862, 863, 864 and part 861

Let with other Lands to Mr. W. NICHOLSON; a yearly Michaelmas tenant.  The Rent apportioned to this

Lot is £13 per Annum

Apportioned Tithes amounting to £2 6s 3d are merged in the Sale.  Apportioned Land Tax, 7s 2d

Apportioned Vicarial Tithe £1 4s 2d;                                     Value for 1906 16s 7d

THE GROWING TIMBER IS INCLUDED

Lot 33

IN GODSTONE PARISH

Two Freehold Cottages and Gardens

at WHITEBRIDGE, BLINDLEY HEATH, fronting the Brighton Road

The Cottages are brick, timber and tiled, and contain Five Rooms each.  Well.  Now occupied by

G. Broomfield and Jas.Brooks.

The Stream bounds this Lot on the North

No. on Plan 863.           Area 2r 16p

Let with “Blue Anchor Farm” to Mr. W. NICHOLSON; a yearly Michaelmas tenant.  The Rent apportioned to the Lot is £7 per Annum.           Apportioned Land Tax, 4s.               Tithe Free.

 

Lot 34

IN GODSTONE PARISH

A VERY VALUABLE ENCLOSURE OF

Freehold Building and Accommodation Pasture Land

in the Village of BLINDLEY HEATH, with Frontage of about 800ft. to the High Road,

and having an area of

14a 0r 34p

The Land slopes to the South and is well adapted for development as a Building Estate, being

about a mile-and-a-half from Godstone and Lingfield Stations.  Water Company’s main adjoins.

No. on Plan 836   Area 14.216 ACRES

Let with “Blue Anchor Farm” to Mr. W. NICHOLSON, a Yearly Michaelmas tenant.  The Rent

Apportioned to this Lot is £11 per Annum

Apportioned Tithe amounting to £2 0s 6d are merged in the Sale.  Apportioned Land Tax, 6s 1d

Apportioned Vicarial Tithe, 18s 1d;                 Value for 1906, 12s 5d

 

It has not yet been possible to establish who purchased the freehold of the cottages but in 1911 they were still known as White Bridge Cottages with George Broomfield and his family in one and Herbert Putland and his family in the other having succeeded James Brooks.  George was still working as a stockman and Herbert was working as a waggoner.

 

In the years 1913 and 1914 the cottages do not appear in the Electoral Roll (perhaps there but un-named) although in 1915 Whitefoots Cottages are occupied by George Broomfield and William Shrubb suggesting that at least George Broomfield and his family were residing there as they had been in 1911.  Between 1919 and 1924 Alfred Diplock (a former cavalry soldier and later butler) and his wife Elizabeth Jane née Betteridge are listed as living at Whitefoots but from 1925 Alfred no longer appears in the Electoral Roll, although Elizabeth continued to live at Whitefoots until 1926.  Between 1919 and 1926 Whitefoots Cottage is in the occupation of the Humphrey family, first John and William Humphrey, then in 1920 John and Edith Humphrey and between 1924 and 1926 John and Isaac Humphrey.  Between 1920 and 1926 Frederick, William and Louisa Roser Skinner are also listed as occupying Whitefoots Cottage.  Given the use of Whitefoots and White Foot Cottages as the addresses used between 1919 and 1926 it would suggest that the property known as Whitefoots was again three dwellings within the one property as it had been in 1871. However, in 1927 only Whitefoots appears in the Electoral Roll, in the occupation of Josephine Roy-Davies and between 1928 and 1930 the property does not appear at all but in 1931 Whitefoots is in the occupation of Daisy Earl Bensted and Margaret Alice Bensted.  These last two entries imply that perhaps from 1927 Whitefoots had returned to being a single dwelling once again.

 

Daisy Earl Bensted

Daisy Earl Bensted was born Daisy Earl Atley in Brixton in 1877, the daughter of Thomas and Ellen Atley.  Thomas was a stationer in 1881, a secretary to a Public Company in 1891 and a Director of a Public Company in 1901.  Daisy married Arthur James Bensted (sometimes written as Benstead) in 1900; Arthur having been born in Norfolk in 1870, the son of James George Benstead, a grocer.  In 1901 Arthur and Daisy were living at Holmer House, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; Arthur employed as a solicitor’s managing clerk.  Daisy and Arthur had at least three children, Reginald Langston born about 1904, Margaret Alice born in 1906 and Philip Arthur born in 1910.

 

In 1931 Daisy and Margaret were living at Whitefoots with no evidence of Arthur or the two boys living there and by 1932 Daisy and Margaret had moved, being succeeded by Florence Tiffen at the property.

 

Florence Tiffen

Little has been found on Florence Tiffen other than she was a married woman as she appears as Mrs Tiffen in the Telephone Directories between 1925 and 1934 and that prior to moving to Elizabethan Cottage she had been living at Heathwood Court, Farnborough, Hampshire, since at least 1925.  It was Florence who changed the name of the property to Elizabethan Cottage.

 

Florence lived at Elizabethan Cottage until 1933 when she moved to Cousldon, Surrey, and was succeeded at the property by John and Dorothy Lansdell.

 

The gap of un-occupation between 1928 and 1930 may imply that during those two years Blunden Shadbolt converted the dwelling that had been multiple occupancies of White Bridge/Whitefoot Cottages back into a single dwelling.  Sadly it has not been possible to determine when the conversion was made as no date was recorded in the Shadbolt archive or who the client was.  Nothing has been found on Josephine Roy-Davis and Daisy Earl Bensted and Florence Tiffen (who re-named Whitefoots as Elizabethan Cottage in 1932) are equally good candidates.  Unfortunately, until more documents come to light it can only be pure speculation as to who commissioned Blunden Shadbolt.

 

Between 1934 and 1936 John Andrew Douglas Lansdell and his wife Dorothy Enid lived at The Elizabethan Cottage, the couple having moved to the area from Camberwell.  In 1936 the Lansdell’s moved to The Old Malting, OldCastleWharf, Teddington, and were succeeded at the Elizabethan Cottage by Rupert George Ledger who resided there until at least 1939.  However, when the Electoral Roll records begin again in 1945, Georgina G Curruthers and Robert C Long are recorded as living at the Elizabethan Cottage.

 

It is known that at some point during the mid 20^th century the Elizabethan Cottage was run as the Elizabethan Tea & Guest Cottage but it is currently unclear who established the business, which must have had a flourishing trade being half-way between London and the coast on what was fast becoming the very busy A22, contemporary postcards noting that it was ‘27 miles to London on the main Eastbourne Road’.  One postcard depicts ‘the corner of one of the Tea Rooms’ with a sideboard covered with what looks like an assortment of home-made cakes, tarts, scones and preserves.  

 

Since 1984 Elizabethan Cottage has been in the occupation of John David Merrill Cole and on 19^th November 1984 the property was given a Grade II listing being described as:

Cottage. Late 16^th century/early 17^th century with 19^th century extension across rear.  Timber framed with brick cladding below, whitewashed brick infill above; whitewashed brick on rear extension.  Hipped, plain tiled roof with ridge stack to right of centre.  Two storeys.  Three framed bays with casement windows across the first floor.  Central, 20^th century, brick gabled porch with planked door flanked by leaded margin lights.  Return fronts have rendered infill on first floor and exposed corner bracing to left.  Interior: The old exterior wall is preserved inside to rear, partition and ceiling framing visible in the front. 

 

In conclusion, Elizabeth Cottage was not a Blunden Shadbolt new build but a renovation and/or internal refit of an already existing old house.  Based upon a few photographs of the structure and current understanding of the dateable features, it appears that the house was originally a three bay hall house dating to at least the early 16^th century.  This is identified from the use of curved bracing that went out of fashion after about 1575 and the fact that the framing is made up of large panels that were little used after 1550.  The jowl posts supporting a tie-beam at the southern end are several feet below the current eaves; this indicates that the roof has been raised by inserting extra timbers above the original wall plate and tie-beam.  This is most likely to have happened when an open hall was floored over and the regular use of the newly created first floor required a greater headroom.  The flooring over of open halls typically took place in the mid to late 16^th century, thus the frame is probably from the early 16^th century or slightly earlier.   

 

What began life as a yeoman’s cottage known as Whitefoots, had by the early 19^th century dropped in status and spent the next hundred or so years divided into two or three agricultural worker’s cottages, before being returned to a single dwelling, with associated rise in status, acquiring the name Elizabethan Cottage by the 1930’s.    

 

Smugglers Cottage & Smugglers Barn, Copthorne   Road, Snowhill

Smugglers Cottage and Smugglers Barn are located at Snowhill and stand on the northern side of the Copthorne Road (A264), which was once just one of many old trackways that led across the Commons from East Grinstead to Crawley, via Felbridge and Copthorne.  The houses were not new builds for Blunden but were a renovation and extension for one existing structure and a conversion of another structure, both once forming part of Borer’s Farm.  

 

The plot on which Smugglers Cottage stands was purchased as a freehold property, forming part of Borer’s Farm, by Henry Frederick Clare in November 1880.  Henry Clare died in 1888 but it was not until 1920 that his estate was put up for sale and by 1925 the plot and cottage had been purchased by William Anthony Rayner. 

 

Historically, Smugglers Cottage did not have a name attached to it, even as late as 1830 it was merely described as ‘a cottage and 1 acre of land at Copthorne’.  Throughout the census listings from 1841 to 1901 it was described simply as ‘Cottage, Copthorne   Road’, ‘Cottage, East Grinstead Way’, or merely ‘Crawley Down’.  The name ‘Smugglers Cottage’ does not appear until 1932, in an article written by Viscountess Wolseley for the Sussex County Magazine.  The accompanying photographs show Smugglers Cottage was a timber framed linear building parallel to the main road with a crosswing at the west end.  Apart from the addition of an annex to the rear, it has remained visually unchanged between 1932 and now. This implies that it was during the ownership of the Rayners that it became the property that it is today, save a few later, minor alterations.     

 

From a survey carried out in 2006, it is most likely that Smugglers Cottage was originally constructed as a two bay dwelling with a narrow smoke bay at the west end.  There is evidence that the dwelling was originally floored in both bays and it is likely that access was obtained to the first floor via a stair partitioned off in the south end of the smoke bay and using a ‘passage’ (it is unlikely that it was partitioned) along the south side of the first floor.  The property has two gable ends with very slight timbers and this structural style is most common about 1600 with very few smoke bay cottages built after 1650, the use of very slight timbers indicates a later date within the period.

 

The catslide at the east end was added at a later date and the mullion windows on the east end replaced with a doorway.  This had probably occurred before about 1700 due to the lack of weathering on the original outside wall.  The chimney was inserted within the smoke bay and the date of 1730 (now removed) in the bressumer is consistent with the brick size and method of construction of the current stack to support that date. The property also had a mullion window at the north side of the east wall on the ground floor, and it is possible that it also had two upstairs mullions and two downstairs mullions in the positions of the current windows in the south wall although the insertion of these windows has hidden the evidence, as the underside of the wall plate and mid rail are not visible.  The stairs were inserted into bay 3, but there is very little constructional evidence to provide a possible date for this insertion, although the partition of the first floor eastern room away from the inserted staircase is definitely 20^th century.

 

From map evidence, the building to the southeast of Smugglers Cottage disappeared between 1910 and 1958 and the addition on the west side of Smugglers Cottage that had been added by 1874 was either demolished or incorporated into the larger extension that you see today.  The extension on Smugglers Cottage has a strangely angled corner on its northwest side and the reason for this is that the west side of the extension abuts the line of the public footpath as it appears on the O/S map of 1912 (survey in 1910) and the corner is angled to match the change in direction of the footpath at this point.  The 1958 O/S map also shows that the boundary between Smugglers Cottage and Smugglers Barn Cottage had been altered since 1910.

 

From photographic evidence dated 1932, it is also possible to compare the appearance the south face of Smugglers Cottage to that of today.  In 1932 the extension to the west was the only part of the house to have leaded light windows; the remainder had pairs of four-pane casement windows.  Since this extension, a second extension has been put on to the west and north sides of it giving the curious cut-off corner that appears on the 1958 map.   The two first floor windows in the south elevation of 1932 had not been raised into the roof as they are today.  Since 1932, two windows have also been cut into the south wall of the catslide, abutting to what was the original end of the cottage and the timber framing has also altered in this section.  The catslide structure ended in line with the original north face of the cottage in 1932 and has since acquired an east/west, two-storey structure abutting it and a north/south structure abutting that.  The sill beam that ran the full length of the cottage and catslide structure on the south side was in situ in 1932 but today ends on the west side of the porch (for further information see Handout, Smugglers Cottage, JIC/SJC 05/06).

 

Adjacent to Smugglers Cottage stands Smugglers Barn (also known as Little Smugglers/Little Smugglers Barn, offering supported living for individuals with learning difficulties), once part of Borer’s Farm of the 1880’s.  The conversion of the old barn and outbuildings into a house with exposed timbers and leaded light windows (not the new accommodation block) is also locally thought to be a Shadbolt design.  Although not documented as the work of Blunden Shadbolt, Smugglers Cottage and Smugglers Barn have many of his early mock-Tudor trademark features, so if it is not his work it is the work of an architect under the influence of Blunden’s style.

 

Summary

It is evident that Blunden Shabolt, who was qualified as both an architect and structural engineer, also had strong artistic traits that are abundantly apparent in the architectural heritage he left behind.  He was highly influenced by the natural world and its resources, architecture of the past, the Arts and Crafts Movement ethics (in particular the architectural work of Sir Edwin Lutyens and Charles Francis Annesley Voysey) and believed, first and foremost, in creating a thing of beauty.  Blunden’s designs reflect the romantic image of the past and often incorporated materials from dismantled structures or built upon structures requiring a little love and attention, bringing them back into use for 20^th century living.

 

Blunden’s houses divide into two types, the larger grander houses, often in the country with large gardens, and smaller houses, usually detached and often on private estates, for the middle class.  He designed, converted or extended over ninety known properties during his working career, with several more houses in the local area believed to show signs of his work, such as Stumbleholm Lodge, Rusper Road, Ifield, West Sussex, and Magpie Cottage, Mid Street, South Nutfield, Surrey.  Examples of his work could be found in: Betchworth, Blindley Heath, Bognor Regis, Brighton, Charlwood, Chelmsford, Copthorne, County Oak, Crawley, Elstree, Epsom, Esher, Ferring, Ham, Haslemere, Highcliffe, Highgate, Hindhead, Hope Valley, Horley, Horsham, Ifield, Kingston-upon-Thames, Leatherhead, Lowfield Heath, Maidenhead, Maidstone, Margate, Mill Hill, Newchapel, Newdigate, North Lancing, Norwood, Outwood, Oxshott, Peacehaven, Peasemarsh, Petersham, Pinner, Pyrford, Rottingdean, Reigate, Rusper, Salfords, South Croydon, South Nutfield, Southend-on-Sea, Teddington, Tinsley Green, Wantage, Watford, Wimbledon and Woking.  Even in the 1950’s houses were still being constructed using un-executed Shadbolt designs from the 1930’s by his former trainee architect Eric Jordan, working with Blunden’s old builder Cecil Wickens. 

 

Today Blunden Shadbolt houses are being re-assessed, re-evaluated and given the recognition they deserve as an architectural legacy, not just to our local area but to Britain as a whole.  Some of his buildings have unfortunately been demolished, like the Old Tithe Barn in North Lancing, W Sussex, Fitzroy Farmhouse in High Gate, Clark’s College in Southend-on-sea, Essex, and Smuggler’s Way in Highcliffe, Hampshire, but many have now been given listing status or form a large part of conservation areas such as in Cross Oak Lane, Horley.  Some early listings, such as The Cottage in the Woods, Tinsley Green, were listed inadvertently; such was Blunden’s ability to create new houses using designs, re-claimed materials and construction methods from the past.  However, more and more houses are now being listed on their own merit or simply because of the Blunden Shadbolt provenance.  Perhaps the most recent example is Cobblestones in Esher, saved from proposed demolition and re-development of the site, being listed in February 2015.     

 

Bibliography

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Handout, Smugglers Cottage, JIC/SJC 05/06, FHWS