Heritage Now #10

FEATURE

timbering to the front gable and an all-envelop ing thatched roof. Prentice’s translation of the functional plan into a lovely asymmetrical free-style external com position was masterly. His charming perspective possessed an Arts-and-Crafts cosiness and even an Alice in Wonderland quality, a trait also seen in some of the contemporary work of C.F.A. Voysey and Edward Guy Dawber. Prentice focused his at tention on the west elevation facing into the stable courtyard. Dominating the composition was the striking half-timbered staircase gable. Built off a high brickwork base and with well-judged fen estration, the half-timbering rose to a four-light window and a gable apex with a sinuous timber design. …a confident and gifted architect with an independence of thought and approach. His Arts-and-Crafts houses were consistently excellent examples of their genre. The clever geometric design of the frontage was an exercise in minimalism. Fenestration was restricted to a six-light window to the living room and the four-light staircase window. The extraordinarily steep roof slope to the left of the gable was devoid of windows. The bedroom and attic floor windows were placed in the north wall in order to create the drama of the uninterrupted thatch plunging down from the high ridge to the eaves. To the right of the gable, the thatch cascad ed down from the ridge of the staircase gable to the open timber porch, now regrettably filled in. Completing the fine composition was a substantial multi-faceted red brick chimney. At the Royal Academy in 1907, Prentice exhibited his proposals for Orchard Farm in the Upper High Street at Broadway in the Cotswolds. The build ing began life in the early 17th century as a small, two-storey L-shaped house with three rooms on the ground floor. In the 18th century, the building was extended eastwards along the road front age and a large attached barn was built at the rear of the property. In 1905, the house was bought by Lady Maud Bowes-Lyon, an aunt of the late Queen Mother, and her mother, the Countess of Strathmore. Andrew Prentice was commissioned to implement external and internal repairs to the building to bring it back to a habitable condition and also to extend the property. The stonework and stone slate roof were repaired and the internal fabric of the house was carefully restored. Much of the old constructional woodwork was in a decayed condition and was replaced.

Prentice then designed a new single-storey L-shaped wing, of kitchen quarters and a serv ants’ hall, as an eastwards continuation of the building along the street frontage. In the barn, the west-facing cart door opening was blocked up to allow an enormously wide and cavern ous fireplace to be built, and the interior became an impressively long oak panelled living room and music room with a raised dais at the south end. The roof of the barn was raised to provide a second storey for bedrooms. The eastern aspect of the barn conversion was attractively designed with a large mullioned and double transomed ground floor window and stone gabled dormer windows. A long L-shaped ground floor window was wrapped round the south-eastern corner to maximise oblique views of the garden from the music room. The eight-light stone mullioned window provided drama to the gable elevation which also accommodated a wall sundial.

TOP: Coachman’s House, Cavenham

Hall, Suffolk. Andrew Prentice’s perspective illustrated a charming and imaginative design revealing his strong allegiance to the Arts and-Crafts movement. BOTTOM: Coachman’s House, Cavenham Hall. The front elevation was designed with a dominant and assertive half-timbered gable to the staircase, well-judged fenestration and all enveloping thatched roof.

On the west facade, the barn conversion added

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HERITAGE NOW (03/2024) WINTER 2024