Norman - Boothby Manor House, Boothby Pagnell, Lincolnshire
Dating from the late 12th century, this two storey range is all that remains of a complex of buildings
that one formed the Manor House. It comprises a first floor hall and solar accessed by an external
staircase set over a vaulted two chamber undercroft.
Boothby Manor House is built of coursed limestone rubble walling with a roof of Collyweston
limestone flags laid to diminishing courses. Internally there is a magnificent twelfth century, round
back fireplace with a massive ashlar stone hood. The four-light window to the first floor was
inserted in the 16th century. Boothby Manor House is listed Grade I.
Medieval - Wealden House, Bignor, West Sussex
Wealden Houses are found throughout the Kent and Sussex Weald, and occasionally beyond.
They are built of timber-frame with steeply pitched hipped thatched roofs (though the thatch was
later often replaced by peg tiles), with an open double height hall in the centre flanked by twostorey bays. The first floor rooms on either side of the central hall are jettied and massive oak
braces are used to support the roof across the recess in front of the hall.
Most Wealden Houses were built for a growing class of yeoman farmers and the house type
reached its peak of development and popularity in the latter part of the 15th century. This Wealden
House in Bignor is listed Grade II*.
Elizabethan – Farmhouse dated 1600, Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire
This timber-framed farmhouse has a central hall range, incorporating a cross passage, flanked by
two cross wings and with a continuously jettied first floor. The close studded exposed oak framing
has wattle and daub infill panels and the date 1600 incorporated into one of the gables. The roof is
of clay peg tiles. The farmhouse is listed Grade II*.
Early Classical – Woolbridge Manor, Dorset
The Romans first introduced brickmaking into England, but the skill was lost during the Dark Ages
and was gradually re-introduced from the Low Countries during the late medieval period, though
initially its use was confined to high status buildings and it was only in the 17th century that use of
brickwork moved down the social scale.
Woolbridge Manor is dated 1635 and is an example of the transition from medieval to classical
design. There was no understanding of proportions in these early classical buildings, and
classicism was restricted to symmetry on the principal elevations and the occasional use of
classical motifs, such as the circular panel on the porch. Woolbridge Manor is listed Grade II*.
Georgian – Charlotte Square, Edinburgh
The Georgian period witnessed the construction of a series of planned grand squares and
terraces, providing elegant and peaceful homes away from the noise and grime of city centres. In
London Cavendish Square was laid out in 1717, followed by Grosvenor Square (1720), Berkley
Square (1739) and Adam’s Fitzroy Square in 1790. Away from the capital, Bath was laid out by
John Wood and his son, beginning with Queen’s Square in 1729 and culminating with the Royal
Crescent in 1775. Edinburgh New Town was planned by James Craig in 1767 and was built by a
variety of architects; Robert Adam designed Charlotte Square in 1791, shortly before his death.
Picturesque – Cottage Ornée, Blaise Hamlet, Bristol
The Picturesque Movement began in the latter part of the 18th century, and originally applied to
landscape painting. By the Regency Period the term was applied to cottage ornée - deliberately
contrived rustic cottages - and to Italianate or castellated country houses.
Blaise Hamlet was commissioned by the Quaker banker John Scandrett Harford to house his
retired servants and is the work of John Nash and George Repton (son of Humphrey Repton). The
hamlet consists of 9 differing cottages informally arranged around a central green. The cottages
are built of stone; with roofs of stone flags, thatch or plain tiles and all have elaborate brick
chimney stacks. All 9 are listed Grade I.
Victorian – Bedford Park, London
Bedford Park is regarded as the prototype for later garden suburbs and was conceived by
Jonathan Carr, who in 1875 bought 24 acres of land adjacent to the newly built Turnham Green
station 30 minutes from the City. The well regarded Victorian architect Richard Norman Shaw was
responsible for a number of house types at Bedford Park, and was succeeded by his pupil and
protégé Edward J May. In 1880 May designed this terrace of four houses with their distinctive
Dutch gables and shell-shaped porches. The terrace is today listed Grade II and Bedford Park is
designated as a Conservation Area.
Edwardian – ‘The Pastures’, Rutland
The Pastures was designed by C.F.A. Voysey and is now listed Grade II*. Voysey was not a very
prolific architect and almost all his commissions were completed between 1890 and 1914. These
mainly comprised a series of individual houses in locations across England; all in his trademark
style of simple rendered walls with horizontal ranges of windows set in stone surrounds and
subdivided by stone mullions, under roofs of slate or stone flags, with deep, overhanging eaves.
Whilst Voysey only completed a relatively small number of buildings, his work was widely
published and influenced a generation of architects, including those responsible for the garden
cities of Letchworth and Welwyn built in the early decades of the 20th century.
Inter-war – Semi-detached houses, Burton Manor, Stafford
The semi-detached house type was first used extensively in the Victorian period, when the new
suburbs became home to a burgeoning middle class. But the house type reached new heights of
popularity in the Inter-war period and vast numbers of semi-detached houses were built as towns
and cities across England continued to expand.
This pair of semis date from 1926 and formed part of a model village, built by the Hall Engineering
Company for their workers at the Stafford based British Reinforced Concrete factory. The village
was designed by the Birmingham architect W.G. Green and featured 9 different house types. The
scheme was never completed and only 69 out of a planned 200 houses were built. In 2008 Burton
Manor was designated a Conservation Area
Modern Movement – ‘The Sun House’, Cambridge
The International Modern Movement style was largely established in Britain by a group of Russian
and German émigré architects including Serge Chermayeff, Betholdt Lubetkin, Walter Gropius,
Erich Mendelsohn and Marcel Breuer. They worked in collaboration with the leading British
architects of the inter-war period and their Continental ideas were quickly adopted by many English
architects.
‘The Sun House’ in Cambridge was designed by Mullett and Denton Smith for William Cairns and
completed immediately prior to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The house is listed Grade II.
Post-war – ‘Highsett’, Cambridge
The decades following WWII saw the continued demand for new housing, though much that was
built was of mediocre design and construction quality. Amongst the exceptions were the ‘Span’
developments designed by Eric Lyons. These provided high density, low rise housing set in
mature landscaped surroundings.
The Span development at Highsett in Cambridge was completed in 3 phases between 1960 – 65.
The first phase comprised a block of 3 storey flats and maisonettes arranged in college ‘court’.
Phase 2 added three terraces of two storey houses and Phase 3 (illustrated here) added a further
range of two and three storey houses. Phase I is now listed Grade II and Phase 3 received a RIBA
award in 1966.
21st Century – ‘Eco Homes’, Upton, Northampton
‘Eco-homes’ were once considered part of an alternative lifestyle, but the onset of global warming
and the prospect of ever increasing energy costs have migrated them to main stream thinking, and
in the early years of the 21st century mass house builders began experimenting with the house
type.
This pair of semi-detached ‘eco-homes’ are part of a new, sustainable urban extension at
Northampton. They incorporate high levels of insulation along with triple height, south-facing
sunspaces that also acts as a thermal buffer between the principle living spaces and the outside,
while their roofs are fitted with solar hot water and photovoltaic panels.