Heritage Now #10

FEATURE

Three buildings by Andrew Noble Prentice

The London-based Scottish architect Andrew Prentice (1866-1941) was known for his Arts-and-Crafts houses, his commissions in the Cotswolds and his large country houses. Alan Calder , Prentice’s biographer, describes three notable buildings illustrating the wide range of his works in England and Scotland.

In 1899 Prentice secured his first country house commission. Cavenham Hall was a substantial new country house with ancillary buildings built on a large shooting estate near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. His client was H.E.M Davies whose wealth came from gold mines in South Africa. The large main house, built of dark red narrow bricks with stone dressings, was an assured and finely proportioned adaptation of the style of the great houses of the 17th century. The mansion was demolished in 1949 but the stable courtyard which included a coachman’s house survives.

Andrew Prentice’s design for the coachman’s house at Cavenham Hall was one of his most imaginative and admired early Arts-and-Crafts buildings. The layout of the accommodation was compact and straightforward. The square plan was designed with the sitting room and stair case on the west side and the living room facing east. The entrance was from the south under an open covered porch. On the first floor there were three bedrooms with an additional bedroom in the attic. The materials were red brickwork to the ground floor, render to the upper floors, half

Symington Lodge, the south facing elevation featured parapeted bay windows to the outer bays and a central bay with a Venetian window, rising to a triangular pediment with stone balustrading either side. (Images by Robert Gough, James Dawnay and Alan Calder)

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HISTORIC BUILDINGS & PLACES