Hambledon Homepage

Dist:0.3km<br/>The main road here is the A283 but the "Woodpigeon" PH near Witley Station has been converted to dwellings http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1135902.

©Shazz

Dist:0.4km<br/>

©Shazz

Dist:0.4km<br/>A green at the junction of the A283 leading to Vann Lane Hambledon

©Richard Thomas

Dist:0.4km<br/>A tricky building to photograph. Its frontage is all concave curves, stretching many yards along a narrow road. The chimney stacks come forward to meet you while the main range hangs back. Ian Nairn, who compiled the Surrey volume of 'Pevsner', regarded this house - built circa 1900, when Lutyens was thirtyish - as the man's greatest achievement. Nairn saw Lutyens as a great talent who sold out, in artistic terms, in order to gain Establishment recognition. He became the principal architect of New Delhi, and designed the Whitehall Cenotaph.

In this image everything looks peaceful, but don't be deceived. The road is the A283 from Milford to Petworth, and the traffic really whizzes past.

This sequence of images continues with: [[2130913]]

©Stefan Czapski

Dist:0.4km<br/>This is a detail of the pavilion seen in [[2204539]]. The basic material used is Bargate stone, often seen in older buildings in the area, though I can't say where it was quarried - does anybody know ? In addition, Lutyens has used red brick around the oval aperture, and bands of tiles laid so that their edges are seen - a rather Italian touch.

If you look closely you will see that the mortar courses have been 'galletted': decorated by pressing dark pebbles into them - like currants in a gingerbread man. This form of decoration is not uncommon in this part of Surrey, but I wonder whether it was ever used elsewhere. For a closer view see: [[2453442]]

tristan forward has illustrated an example of galleting at Ockley: [[1573391]].

©Stefan Czapski

Dist:0.4km<br/>Right in front of the camera is the pavilion at the northern end of the frontage of this Lutyens house. The concave curve of the wall is a curious feature, to say the least - an instance of Lutyens' 'architectural geometry' which intrigued Ian Nairn, compiler of the Surrey volume of 'The Buildings of England' - see: [[2203515]] To me, this part of the building seems to pre-figure the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Above the main mass of the building rise three gables. It is my belief that this feature was inspired by William Morris's Tudor manor house in Oxfordshire [[2140360]]. I don't know whether Lutyens visited Kelmscott, but he is sure to have seen it illustrated in Morris's 'News from Nowhere', first published in 1890.

This sequence continues with [[2204583]]

©Stefan Czapski

©Shazz

Dist:0.4km<br/>This was an early project for the architect Edwin Lutyens, built circa 1900 when he was still a young man. He was born not far away at Thursley, in 1869 (grid-square SU9039 http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SU9039 ) and his early work in the area shows a definite affection for local materials and ways of building.

Ian Nairn, who compiled the Surrey volume of 'Pevsner' ('The Buildings of England') loved Tigbourne Court, saying: 'There is hardly a better building in England to give an idea of the effect of architectural geometry pure and simple'. I hope this shot gives at least a clue as to what he meant. You don't often find a building with an external wall that has a concave curve to it (it's not an economic way to use a building plot) - but in this portion of the frontage there are no less three such surfaces. Two of them can easily be seen here, the third being to the right of the doorway. And then there are those soaring chimneys - which could hardly be pushed further forward. This is the 'pavilion' at the left-hand end of the frontage. Overall, the frontage is symmetrical, so a 'reflection' of what you see here appears at the right-hand end. Altogether there are six stretches of wall with a concave curve.

For an impression of the overall frontage see: [[2130908]]

This sequence continues with [[2204539]]

©Stefan Czapski

Dist:0.4km<br/>

©Dave Spicer

Dist:0.4km<br/>This view shows the entrance, with its Tuscan Doric columns, and two of the three gables of the main fa�ade. Lutyens grew up not far away, at Thursley, and at this early stage in his career made much use of local materials and techniques. Here he used Bargate stone, commonly used in places like Milford and Puttenham. To me, in certain lights, it gives a building a munchy quality, like Dundee cake !

I may be wrong, but I suspect that in designing this fa�ade, Lutyens had in mind the gables at Kelmscott Manor, William Morris's country home in Oxfordshire http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2140360

The sequence continues with [[2203515]]

©Stefan Czapski

Dist:0.4km<br/>Tigbourne Court was designed by Edwin Lutyens very early in his career, before he became the 'Establishment' architect that he was in later life:- [[2130908]] A number of his early commissions were for houses in south-west Surrey, where he had grown up. At this stage in his career he made much use of local materials - such as the Bargate stone from which Tigbourne Court is built. Another local touch at Tigbourne is the use of 'galleting', shown in this image. Dark pebbles have been pressed into the mortar courses as a form of decoration. To me, it looks for all the world as if the job has been left to children - unlikely, because galleting extends right up to the gables.

There's not much else I can say about galleting: the name seems to come from a French word for pebble, 'galet' (less commonly used than 'caillou', I think). Examples of this form of decoration are quite easily found in south-west Surrey, and tristan forward has documented one at Ockley, a bit further east [[1573391]]. Up till now, the most distant example known to me is in Kent, at Allhallows, towards the Isle of Grain.

©Stefan Czapski

Dist:0.4km<br/>This cottage stands just a short distance to the south of Tigbourne Court, an important early Lutyens house http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2130908 and may have been intended as staff accommodation. The house and cottage have a number of features in common: both are built of the local Bargate stone, with galleted mortar courses, while the oval window to the right of the cottage front door echoes a feature of the larger house http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2204583.

Perhaps it is just the scale of the building, but (to me, at least) Little Leat seems a bit prim, contrasting with Tigbourne Court's ruggedness.

Little Leat is Grade II listed: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-438335-little-leat-hambledon

©Stefan Czapski

Dist:0.4km<br/>The tractor beside the log piles enjoys its weekend off.

©Colin Smith

Dist:0.5km<br/>

©Basher Eyre

Dist:0.5km<br/>The path passes through the back gardens of houses in Wormley.

©Dave Spicer

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]

Members Nearby

Hambledon Discussion Forum

Places Near Hambledon

Bowlhead Green • Brook • Busbridge • Chiddingfold • Combe Common • Culmer • Dunsfold Common • Dunsfold Green • Dunsford • Enton Green • Godalming • Hambledon • Hascombe • Highstreet Green • Holloway Hill • Hydestile • Loxhill • Milford • Mousehill • Ockford Ridge • Peartree Green • Sandhills • Stroud • The Downs • Thorncombe Street • Tuesley • Westbrook • Wheelerstreet • Witley • Wormley •