Thursday 20 March 2014

Wainsford and Downton, near Lymington - some E.P King houses


Following on from my previous post, the size and location of Ernest Powell King's house on the 1901 census is intriguing.   King being Joseph King's brother.

1901 'part of Milford', Lymington census

The census papers call the area part of Milford parish, in the rural district of Lymington.  Wainsford House is the second home on the census, after Wainsford Lodge and before Wainsford Stables.  The Lodge has the head of the family as a gardener, and the Stables has the head as a coachman.  That suggests that the two surrounding households are in the employment of Wainsford House, where the head of the household, Ernest Powell King is living on his own means.
Extract of Wainsford, Lymington 1901 census


Googling Wainsford House does not yield a result (I think!) but Wainsford Lodge and Wainsford Stables do appear to currently exist, whether they are the same properties as those on the 1901 census I am not clear.  Wainsford itself appears to be an area above Efford, which is next on the census, with Efford House, Lodge, Drive and Farm, and seems to be the area between Everton and Lymington.  The road between Pennington and Everton is called Wainsford Road, and above this the map shows a Wainsford Copse and a Lower Wainsford Copse.  There appears to be some large buildings set in the countryside there, so perhaps these include Wainsford House.

Wainsford, Lymington 

Map showing Wainsford Copse and Lower Wainsford Copse

Interestingly, Jackson (F.W.Troup: Architect 1859-1941, Building Centre Trust, 1985) records FW Troup, who designed most of Haslemere's Peasant Arts houses, as designing a house in 1905 for E.P. King.  I don't believe the book makes the link to Joseph King, who Troup designed the Haslemere buildings and Sandhouse in Witley, but this is doubtless Ernest Powell King.  With this architectural connection I think it therefore especially interesting that Ernest Powell King had Edwin Lutyens staying with on the 1901 census.  Jackson records the 1905 Troup design as being "for a five-room cottage, built for E.P. King, was to be the model he used at Letchworth and Lingfield, and that which Schultz, Arnold Mitchell, Curtis Green and doubtless others were later to employ".  Interesting also here that Jackson refers to Arthur Romney Green's architect brother Curtis Green.  I'm not sure whether this building is still in existence, if so it sounds like it would have once looked very much like the Letchworth 'cheap cottage' he designed later.
Downton and Hordle on the left of the map,
Wainsford is located to the right by Newlease Copse

Jackson goes on to describe "the attraction of this cottage was its compact planning and, at just over 4 1/2d per cubic foot, its remarkable cheapness.    The design was essentially that of a single-storey building, with two bedrooms in the roofspace and one of the floor below.  A scullery, living room and entrance lobby completed the ground floor, the earth closet being located away from the building.

"The cottage, measuring but 21ft. 6 ins by 24ft. was a timber frame, faced with steel laths and cement render and plastered inside.  Set on a concrete raft foundation, it had a brick chimney core and flat, roll-edged, interlocking tiles on the half-hipped roof.  It cost £148 to build."

Jackson identifies the house as being at Downton, Hordle, near Lymington.  Downton and Hordle appear to be two separate places located to the left of Wainsford.  I wonder if there is a house thereabouts that meets this description?  Although the Letchworth cheap cottage has changed markedly from the 1905 photograph as I explored in this post, as seen below, so it may be difficult to identify!


F W Troup's 'Cheap Cottage' 124 Wilbury Road, Letchworth, 1905
from the Garden City Museum


F W Troup's 'Cheap Cottage' 124 Wilbury Road, Letchworth,
present day


2 comments:

  1. Wainsford House
    50.755389, -1.582566
    Wainsford House Stables:
    50.755881, -1.581710
    Wainsford Lodge (modern house, rebuilt on location)
    50.753750, -1.578985

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jon K,
    Many thanks for this information. It has taken me a little while to work out how to use the references you gave above(!), which I can see are exceedingly accurate map locations. Thank you very much. At some point I will have to visit Wainsford to check them out.

    Best wishes
    Kate

    ReplyDelete

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