Goddards
Goddards from the west
TypeCountry house
LocationAbinger Common, Surrey
Coordinates51°11′51″N 0°23′57″W / 51.19750°N 0.39917°W / 51.19750; -0.39917
Elevation179 metres (587 ft)
Built1899–1900
ArchitectEdwin Lutyens
Architectural style(s)Arts and Crafts movement
Governing bodyLandmark Trust
OwnerLutyens Trust
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameGoddards
Designated7 February 1972
Reference no.1028841
Goddards is located in Surrey
Goddards
Location of Goddards in Surrey

Goddards is a Grade II*-listed house in Abinger Common, Surrey, England. It was designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1898–1900 in the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. It was built "as a home of rest to which ladies of small means might repair for holiday" for shipping magnate Frederick Mirrielees. The west-facing courtyard garden was designed by Gertrude Jekyll. In 1910, Lutyens extended the building and adapted it as a private residence.

Goddards was given to the Lutyens Trust in 1991 and has been leased to the Landmark Trust since 1996. A restoration project took place in the 1990s and the building is open to visitors by prior arrangement. Goddards is the headquarters of the Lutyens Trust.

History

The land for Goddards was originally part of the Wotton Estate, owned by the Evelyn family.[1] The name is from "Goddards Cottage", which dates from the 17th century and still stands to the southeast of the Lutyens house.[2][3] The 2.8 ha (10-acre) plot is on Abinger Common in Surrey, northwest of Leith Hill, and is almost 180 m (590 ft) above ordnance datum.[4][5]

The common room (right) and north wing from the courtyard garden in 1904

In 1898, shipping magnate Frederick Mirrielees commissioned Edwin Lutyens to design a "home of rest to which ladies of small means might repair for holiday."[4] Mirrielees specified that the building should consist of two small side cottages linked by a common room.[6] The majority of the women who stayed at Goddards were single and were generally employed as nurses or governesses.[7] At Goddards they were able to socialise, read and enjoy music and games together.[6] The building was also used as a rest home for soldiers injured in the Second Boer War.[8]

In 1910, Mirrielees commissioned Lutyens to convert Goddards into a residence for his son, Donald, and daughter-in-law, Mary Pangbourne.[9] The architect extended the two wings, creating a dining room and a library on the ground floor and two new bedrooms on the first floor.[5] The modifications included partitioning the gallery into three bedrooms for domestic servants. A further bedroom was added in the north wing; central heating and electrical wiring were installed for the first time.[10] Lutyens also erected the timber-framed, 17th century barn, now the house known as "High Barn", which he relocated from Slinfold, West Sussex.[2][11]

Frederick Mirrielees died in January 1914[12][13] and Goddards was leased to the banker, Arthur Gibbs. Mirrielees' widow, Mary, died in 1925 and, two years later, Gibbs purchased the house from her family.[14]

Plaque in the common room marking the donation of Goddards to the Lutyens Trust in memory of Lee Hall

Bill and Noeline Hall bought Goddards in 1953.[9] They were responsible for commissioning the detached garage, designed by Wildblood and Hall in 1981.[2] In the same year, the Halls hosted an exhibition on Lutyens, which helped to revive interest both in the architect's work and in the wider Arts and Crafts movement.[15] Their son Lee, an architect, died in 1988 and the couple donated the house to the Lutyens Trust in 1991 in his memory.[14][9] The plaque in the common room by Richard Kindersley, is also dedicated to him.[6] Goddards was opened to pre-booked visitors in 1991.[6][16]

The Landmark Trust leased the house from the Lutyens Trust in 1996 and began a programme of restoration to return it to its 1910 configuration. The work included the relocation of the kitchen, which had been moved in 1953,[9] and the removal of partitions that had divided some of the rooms into smaller spaces. As part of the same project, the external brickwork and stonework was repaired, including the partial rebuilding of one of the chimneys on the north side of the house.[17] The house was reopened to pre-booked visitors in 1997.[9] Goddards was given grade II* listed building status in February 1972.[18]

House

Stylistically, the house sits within the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement and combines Tudor and vernacular influences with contemporary ideas from the end of the 19th century.[6] For Goddards, Lutyens followed the philosophy of his mentor, Randolph Caldecott, in creating a traditional country building[19] and he may also have been influenced by the design of local almshouses.[7] The materials used in the building contribute rustic textures and colours. The walls are constructed of colourwashed rough-cast stone and the prominent chimneys are built of brick.[18][7] The clay tiles of the main roof are plain, but the lower courses are slabs of Horsham Stone, which form a pentice above the canted bay windows.[20][21]

Ground (left) and first floor plans after the 1910 alterations

The house is built around three sides of a courtyard, with splayed wings, likened to a "butterfly", oriented towards the late-afternoon and evening sun.[22] Although the general plan is symmetrical,[23] Daniel O'Neill notes: "No sooner did Lutyens set up a symmetrical scheme than he started to break it down in a way seemingly arbitrary, though actually carefully controlled".[24] For example, the entrance from the west-facing courtyard is positioned at the south end of the common room, rather than in the centre, and this imbalance is accentuated by a dormer window above. O'Neill observes that these and similar asymmetric features temper the dominance of the tall, paired chimney stacks.[24]

The common room in 1904

Since its original intended use was as a holiday home, the Mirrilees family did not request luxury furnishings. As the writer, Dominic Bradbury, notes: "The restrained and sometimes utilitarian interiors let the craftsmanship shine through."[25] The historian, Jane Ridley, notes that the internal features such as the timberwork, larder ventilators and decorative ironmongery were influenced by ideas later expouned in Gertrude Jekyll's book, Old West Surrey, published in 1904.[21] The common room, modelled on an open medieval hall, is typical of this vernacular aesthetic, with exposed timber beams and a large fireplace at one end.[4][9]

Skittle alley

The skittle alley, in the southeastern corner of the house, is part of the original construction and would have been considered fashionable at the end of the 19th century.[1][9] The roof of the single-storey arcade is supported by brick arches which lead into the orchard[4] and which, according to Dominic Bradbury, "help to define a functional, yet quietly beautiful space."[25] The carvings on the walls were taken from the demolished Wandsworth manor house and are dated 1707.[1][26] The original skittles and balls are still kept at Goddards.[6][18]

The majority of the oil paintings at Goddards are by Charles Augustus Lutyens (1829–1917) and have been lent to the Landmark Trust by the Lutyens family. Several of the watercolours are by Ethel Hall. In the library is a likeness of Edwin Lutyens by Meredith Frampton, which is an engraving of the portrait in the Art Workers' Guild. In the sitting room is a portrait of Noeline Hall by Will Longstaff.[27] The datestone above the front door bears the letters "MCM" which represent the year of completion of the house (1900) in Roman numerals and also the initials of the Mirrielees' daughter, Margaret Celia Mirrielees. The organ pipes carved into the stone are a pun on the family surname "Mirrielees – merry lees".[7][28]

Gardens

Courtyard garden with central well pond

The west-facing courtyard garden sits between the two wings of the house[23] and is overlooked by all the major rooms.[6] Designed by Gertrude Jekyll, it was intended to be low maintenance and lacks the large herbaceous borders and pergola structures typical of her work.[23] The focal point is a well pond in the centre, surrounded by silvery-grey foliage that adds structure to the space.[23][25][29] A vine planted by Jekyll in 1900 still survives.[6] According to Judith Tankard, the "curiously shaped paving stones [in the west garden]… give the space an architectural character."[23]

The east garden, looking northwest

The east garden is screened from the road by a boundary hedge containing beech, elm, hawthorn and holly, thought to pre-date the house.[30] The original yew hedges, planted in 1898, are still in place.[23] The outer garden is defined by shrubbery on the north side, a ha-ha to the west and the present car park to the south.[31]

Millstones are set into the paving in all three garden areas.[32] The largest, in the east garden, is 1.5 m (60 in) in diameter and is thought to have come from a bark-grinding mill at Godalming.[33] The smallest stones, in the west courtyard, are 60 cm (23.5 in) in diameter and may have formed part of hand-powered mill.[33] Most of the stones are thought to have originated from quarries in Derbyshire, although five are thought to be burrstones from France.[34]

Critical responses

In his 2005 book, English gardens in the twentieth century, Tim Richardson writes: "Orchards and Goddards, particularly, seem to suggest both grandeur and humility at the same time – the Holy Grail for the English sensibility."[35] In his 2009 book, The iconic house, Dominic Bradbury says of Goddards: "the nature of its use led to the supremacy of an almost Shaker-like simplicity within, rather than the atmosphere of Lutyens' great country houses."[4] He further comments: "This intriguing combination of old and new – within a house that has a foot in both past and future – makes Goddards so fresh and powerful."[36]

In Landmark : A history of Britain in 50 buildings, published in 2015, the architectural historian, Anna Keay, writes: "Goddards embodied the Arts and Crafts ideal of an honest, unpretentious home."[9] The writer, Alan Powers, considers the building to be one of three houses that exemplify the Arts and Crafts movement: "Goddards… is a good representative of the period… when [Lutyens] came closest to the Modernist idea."[37]

The 1910 extension to the west end of the north wing

Others have been more critical. Daniel O'Neill writes: "The feeling is of congested display and pictorial gymnastics for its own sake. There is so often this conflict in Lutyens' early work – where admiration for his inventive ideas and the rigor of carrying them out are at odds with exasperation at their ostentation."[24] Of the wing extensions added during the 1910 remodelling, he comments: "One cannot help thinking that Lutyens was trying too hard for sculptural effect in the build-up of small roof sections."[24] In contrast, the architectural historian, Gavin Stamp, writes: "These new end wings are superb examples of Lutyens' handling of form, with wall planes stepped back by slated slopes... - a system of sculpting mass similar to that employed on the Cenotaph a decade later."[38]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Weaver 1987, p. 39.
  2. 1 2 3 O'Brien, Nairn & Cherry 2022, p. 106.
  3. ↑ Historic England. "Goddards Cottage (Grade II) (1392106)". National Heritage List for England.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Bradbury 2009, p. 32.
  5. 1 2 Weaver 1987, p. 36.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Spero, Carol (November 1993). "Goddards". Surrey County Magazine. Vol. 24, no. 11. pp. 12–13.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Keay & Stanford 2015, p. 250.
  8. ↑ Weaver 1987, p. 35.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Keay & Stanford 2015, pp. 251–252.
  10. ↑ Holder 2021, p. 115.
  11. ↑ Historic England. "High Barn (Grade II) (1028842)". National Heritage List for England.
  12. ↑ "Obituary: Sir Frederick Mirrielees". The Times. No. 40433. London. 29 January 1914. p. 29.
  13. ↑ "Sir F. J. Mirrielees". Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser. No. 1376. 31 January 1914. p. 8.
  14. 1 2 Percy 2011, pp. 34–35.
  15. ↑ Richardson 2005, p. 186.
  16. ↑ Massingberd, Hugh (17 April 1992). "Lutyens triumphs amid gentility". Daily Telegraph. No. 42554. p. 14.
  17. ↑ Percy 2011, pp. 29–30.
  18. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Goddards (Grade II*) (1028841)". National Heritage List for England.
  19. ↑ Hussey 1984, pp. 8–9, 87.
  20. ↑ O'Brien, Nairn & Cherry 2022, p. 104.
  21. 1 2 Ridley 2002, p. 129.
  22. ↑ Keay & Stanford 2015, p. 249.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tankard 2011, p. 85.
  24. 1 2 3 4 O'Neill 1980, pp. 49–50.
  25. 1 2 3 Bradbury 2009, p. 34.
  26. ↑ Weaver 1987, p. 41.
  27. ↑ Percy 2011, pp. 40–41.
  28. ↑ Percy 2011, p. 16.
  29. ↑ Richardson 2005, pp. 36–37.
  30. ↑ Percy 2011, p. 24.
  31. ↑ Percy 2011, p. 23.
  32. ↑ Roberts 1995, p. 50.
  33. 1 2 Roberts 1995, pp. 55–56.
  34. ↑ Roberts 1995, pp. 54–55, Appendix III.
  35. ↑ Richardson 2005, p. 47.
  36. ↑ Bradbury 2009, p. 33.
  37. ↑ Powers 2005, pp. 10–11.
  38. ↑ Stamp 2001, p. 76.

Bibliography

  • Bradbury, Dominic (2009). The iconic house. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-50-034255-8.
  • Holder, Julian (2021). Arts and Crafts architecture : 'Beauty's Awakening'. Marlborough: The Crownwood Press Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78-500796-5.
  • Hussey, Christopher (1984). The life of Sir Edwin Lutyens. Melton: ACC Art Books. ISBN 978-0-90-746259-0.
  • Keay, Anna; Stanford, Caroline (2015). Landmark : A history of Britain in 50 buildings. London: Frances Lincoln Ltd. ISBN 978-0-71-123645-5.
  • O'Brien, Charles; Nairn, Ian; Cherry, Bridget (2022) [1962]. Surrey. The Buildings of England. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30-023478-7.
  • O'Neill, Daniel (1980). Lutyens : Country houses. London: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-82-307361-0.
  • Percy, Clayre (2011) [2009]. Goddards History Album. Maidenhead: Landmark Trust. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  • Powers, Alan (2005). Modern : The Modern Movement in Britain. London: Merrell. ISBN 978-1-85-894255-1.
  • Richardson, Tim (2005). English gardens in the twentieth century. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84-513071-8.
  • Ridley, Jane (2002). The architect and his wife. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0-70-117201-5.
  • Roberts, Niall (1995). "Lutyens' and Jekyll's garden millstones". In Breckels, Duncan (ed.). Proceedings of the Twelfth Mill Research Conference. Ivinghoe: Mills Research Group. ISBN 978-0-95-097587-0.
  • Stamp, Gavin (2001). Edwin Lutyens : Country Houses. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-85-410763-3.
  • Tankard, Judith B. (2011). Gertrude Jekyll and the country house garden. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84-513624-6.
  • Weaver, Lawrence (1987) [1913]. Houses and gardens by E.L. Lutyens. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 978-0-90-202898-2.
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