New Place

Description

In 1904, Mrs. A. S.Franklyn of Shedfield Lodge commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to design a house firstly to incorporate the magnificent interior of an early 17th century mansion in Bristol scheduled for demolition which she had inherited and secondly to perpetuate the name of Shakespeare’s house in Stratford called New Place with which the Franklyn’s were connected through the Arden family branch of Shakespeare’s mother Mary Arden. The Langton mansion in Bristol was built in 1623 for John Langton a highly respected wealthy merchant who became mayor of Bristol in1628. In 1779 the Langton mansion had been converted into a tobacco factory remaining as such until 1906 when it was demolished. Mrs. Franklyn salvaged the whole interior. The ceilings and panelling were removed in numbered sections and together with the inlaid mahogany doors, staircase, balusters, ceilings and fireplaces, were transported by rail to Wickham and from there to Shirrell Heath by horse and wagon. The Bristol Room contains all the fittings from John Langton’s state rooms. The Lutyens Bar and Franklyn rooms also contain original ceilings, fireplaces and panelling from Bristol. The dining room ceiling is also original. New Place was ready for occupation in 1908 and Mrs. Franklyn gave it to her son, Captain Henry Arden Franklyn, as a wedding present. New Place was sold in 1956 to Mr Patrick Harley for £12,000. Mr Harley ran New Place as a boy’s preparatory school, with seven boys. He remained Headmaster, teaching Latin and Maths for the following ten years when he sold the school to Mr. & Mrs P. A. Deane as a prep school of seventy boys aged seven to thirteen. The school closed in July 1978 and New Place and the grounds were purchased by the Simpact Company and run as a conference centre. In 1979 the first bedroom block was built and in 1980, the second. (Contributor: Paul Waite)

Country house. 1906, by Lutyens. Walls of red brickwork (of special dimensions) in Flemish bond, moulded plinth band, hood moulds, parapet moulding, mouldings to the chamfered window frames (with mullions and mullions and transoms). Tile roof. A formal design of Jacobean style, with symmetrical elevations, and consistent use of details. South-east front of two storeys, projecting two storeyed porch and three storeyed projecting wings with full-height bays, 1.1.1.1.1 windows. Casements of a small standard size presented as mullioned or mullioned and transomed lights in a variety of multiple forms, the smallest in the 1st floor of the bays (group of 4) and the ground-floor of the recessed centre (wider group of 2), of double height at the ground and 2nd floors of the bays (group of 4) and 1st floor of the recessed centre (wider group of 2). In the centre are coupled double height windows above a semi-circular arch of triple mouldings, the wall face having projected decoration and quoins. The south west elevation is wider, of similar details, with outer bays and a more elaborate (half-decagon) bay in the recessed centre; 3.2.3 storeys, 2.1.2 windows. The north east front is similar, but the recessed centre has a catslide roof with hipped dormers, meeting a single-storeyed service wing extending at right-angles for some distance. The porch has a brick barrel vault, and leads to a passage which crosses the full width of the house, having a plaster barrel vault. A feature of the interior is a large room (the Bristol Room), which is lined with panelling, has an elaborate doorway and a carved stone overmantel and fireplace, and a richly-ornamented plaster ceiling with pendants: all these features (c1630) being re-used from a house in Bristol; a fine carved staircase, panelling in another room, and a stone fireplace, also come from Bristol. The building is notable for representing the change from the early Arts and Crafts style to the formal classical style of country house. (Historic England, list entry 1095660)

Bibliography

Historic England. NEW PLACE SHIRRELL HEATH. [Online] Available from: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1095660

Also Cited In

O’Brien C, Pevsner N, Bailey B & Lloyd DW (2018) Hampshire: South. The Buildings of England. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Weaver, L. (1913) Houses and Gardens by E L Lutyens. London: Country Life.

Aslet, C. (1982) The Last Country Houses. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Pevsner, N. (1962) Hampshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Butler, A., 1950. The architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens: the Lutyens memorial series. Vol 1: Country Houses, Country Life: London and Scibners: New York.

L, W., 1910. COUNTRY HOMES GARDENS OLD & NEW: NEW PLACE, SHEDFIELD, HAMPSHIRE. Country Life (Archive : 1901 – 2005), 27(692), pp. 522-531.

Listing Grade

I

Listing Reference

1095660

Client

Mrs A S Franklin