Building record 374/4/1 - Hellidon Grange (former vicarage and school)

House, former rectory and preparatory school. 1850 and 1861 with earlier origins; some C20 alterations. By William Butterfield for Reverend C.S. Holthouse

{1} House, former rectory and preparatory school. 1850 and 1861 with earlier origins; some C20 alterations. By William Butterfield for Reverend C.S. Holthouse. Ironstone ashlar with some sandstone dressings, tile roof, various stone stacks. Complex plan, basically L-shape. Main range of 2 storeys and attic and 3 windows, 2-storey wings. Principal range facing garden has 3-light wood mullion and transom windows to ground floor, three-light casement windows either side of a 2-light casement window to: windows have pointed relieving arches. Gabled half-dormers to attic storey. School-room wing projecting at right end has 2-storey gabled porch right of centre with Caernarvon doorway to ground floor, a stone outer staircase to left and 2-light arched casement window to first floor. To right of porch two 4-light chamfered mullion windows to ground floor and gabled dormers to first floor either side of porch. Left of porch 1 and 2-light casement windows to ground floor; a lean atslide roof in angle between the ranges containing corridor links. At left side of first floor large half-hipped dormer with 5-light Gothic timber tracery window. Gable end of principal range faces road and has semi-canted bay window with steep stone roof to right of large stone stack. To left of gable end and facing road 2-storey, 1-window entrance wing with gabled timber porch which has inner and outer plank doors with ornamental hinges, 1-light windows to either side and 3-light window to first floor. Left end elevation has two-storey canted bay window. Interior: C19 broach-stop chamfered spine beams. Former school dining hall in ground floor of schoolroom wing remodelled early C20. School room on first floor above has arch-brace collar truss roof and fine encaustic tile fireplace with monogram of Reverend C.S. Holthouse, designed and presented by Minton. The house was described in obituary of Reverend C. S. Holthouse (A Pilgramage to Hellidon, Northamptonshire Herald, 5 February 1881) as 'one of the happiest specimens of Butterfield's domestic architecture, shewing in gable and dormer and outside staircase its natural growth from a small beginning'. The nucleus of the rectory was a small baker's house purchased by the Reverend C.S. Holthouse, remodelled and extended at a cost of £1143,15.04. (Holthouse papers: Northants Record Office).

{3} A building assessment recorded the exterior and interiors of this singular property, a former vicarage and school designed by the Architect William Butterfield, a leading light in the Ecclesiologist Movement. Begun in 1850 around the vestiges of an older vernacular building, the house was three times extended before it closed as a vicarage and school and was sold to a private owner in 1910. It has been in only three ownerships since, changing hands in 1918, 1966 and recently in 2012. Although the structure and form is demonstrably by Butterfield, much of the interior has been reordered, and material moved around. Many alterations and additions, notably between 1910 and 1935 were and remain incongruous, detracting from the Butterfield design. Throughout the structure has utilised quality materials, although many spaces have been underused since 1910, due to the immense size of the building. There has been little alteration to the building since at least 1966.

{4} Renovation of the house revealed a previously unknown window to the bakehouse and a brick-lined well. A previoulsy unknwon flagstone floor in the former kitchen was re-laid in the adjacent room.

{6} Undated photo;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 13/98 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F05 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN44900.

<3> Soden, I. & Walker, C., 2012, Archaeological Building Assessment of Hellidon Grange, Hellidon, Northamptonshire March-April 2012, https://doi.org/10.5284/1104225 (Report). SNN108524.

<4> Bassir A., 2017, Archaeological watching brief at Hellidon Grange, Hellidon, Northamptonshire, 2017 (Report). SNN111110.

<5> Horne B. (Editor), 2013, South Midlands Archaeology (43), p. 37 (Journal). SNN111431.

<6> Photographs of buildings in Hellidon (Photographs). SNN112659.

Record last edited

Oct 24 2024 4:23PM