Merrymeade House And Attached Garden Wall, Merrymeade Chase, Off Sawyers Hall Lane

Merrymeade House and Attached Garden Wall

A country house built in 1912 by architect Hugo R. Bird for Robert Horne-Payne, a local businessman who had made his fortune in Canadian railways. The house stands on Merrymeade Chase, off Sawyers Hall Lane.

The main house is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with red brick dressings and plaintile roofs. It comprises two storeys and attics, with an attached one and a half storey service wing containing a basement. The entrance front is arranged near-symmetrically with bays in the pattern 2:2:1:2:2, with a central bay and outer wings breaking forward. The facade features a deep timber modillion cornice, with a central entrance bay set under a segmental pediment with moulded mutules. The entrance itself is a fluted doorcase with a flat broken canopy on richly carved brackets, containing a pair of three-panelled moulded doors beneath a fanlight. Above this sits a tripartite horned sash window. The returns and flanking wall contain ovoid oculi. A secondary entrance to the left is set back under a simple round arch. Other windows throughout are horned timber sashes. Two-light half-hipped dormers project from the roof on all bays except the central one. Tall slender brick stacks with slightly moulded caps are positioned against the forward wings. Red brick quoins and a platband run across the facade. The service wing has smaller paned double and tripartite casement windows with two-light half-hipped dormers.

The garden front is detailed with equal care. Arranged in a near-symmetrical pattern of 2:2:2:2:2, it differs from the entrance front only in the positioning of dormers and stacks. The central and outer bays project forward under half-hipped roofs. At ground floor, a central bow window with fluted pilasters between horned sashes sits beneath a dentil cornice. The first floor and outer bays have horned sashes with shutters; inner bays have horned sashes alone. Garden doors feature fielded lower panels and 3 x 2 glazed upper panes beneath three-light overlights. The left-hand and central bays contain half-hipped two-light dormers, while the inner right bay has a four-light dormer of similar style. Tall stacks rise at the gable walls and to the left of the central bay.

The west elevation features a curved ground floor bay in brick beneath a hemispherical tiled roof, with horned sashes and a door set on the curve, the door having a fielded lower panel and glazed upper panes beneath a three-light overlight. An ornate cast iron band with maple leaf panels alternating with beaver and moose designs, and having a scalloped edge, runs across this elevation and continues as a rainwater head similarly detailed. Cast iron rainwater heads throughout are inscribed with the initials A.H.P. (Alice Horne-Payne) and R.H.P., references to the owner's Canadian business interests also appearing in decorative downspouts and hoppers.

The interior is richly appointed throughout. An inner porch contains a pair of doors with leaded lights, leading to a fully panelled hall with a dentil cornice and similar doors featuring brass furniture. A moulded stone chimneypiece with diagonally-set tile fireback and a moulded ribbed plaster ceiling complete the space. The staircase features a panelled dado, carved strings, turned balusters (two per tread), square carved newels, and a ramped carved and moulded rail that ramps to each post at the upper landing.

The drawing room (M1) contains a classical chimneypiece with engaged fluted Ionic columns flanked by horizontal niches beneath mirrors in moulded architraves. A moulded dado rail and garlanded frieze run around the room, while a low relief plaster ceiling features a central foliate ring with roundels bearing figures. A pair of three-panelled moulded doors in enriched architraves sit beneath flat canopies, with a slender moulded architrave to a blank wall panel.

The garden room (M2) has a timber moulded chimneypiece with tile slips, a moulded frieze, and a shallow plaster ceiling. The library (M3) contains a chimneypiece with an eared architrave and green glazed tile fireback. The study (M4) is panelled with an integral angle chimneypiece featuring tile slips. The dining room (M5) features a heavy carved chimneypiece with a cast iron duck's nest grate in 18th-century manner, together with ship tiles and an ornate ribbed plaster ceiling. Doors in the principal ground floor rooms carry six moulded panels on their inner faces.

The service wing comprises a series of housekeeper's and butler's rooms, and a gun room, each with simple angle chimneypieces and plain glazed tile fireplaces and hearths. The kitchens have been altered but retain connection to a cold room with slate slabs. Terrazzo passage floors line the service areas. Gun room and first floor door architraves feature corner rosettes. Service end doors on both floors are of four panels in moulded architraves. First floor rooms contain fine chimneypieces with bee, bird, or townscape tiles, some possibly reused, along with fine duck's nest grates in some instances. Service wing fireplaces and rounded hearths are each of single-coloured glazed tiles. The back staircase has square newels with faceted caps and stick balusters with a moulded rail, while the attic stair has stick balusters set diagonally.

An attached garden wall curves in red brick laid in Flemish bond, incorporating brick pilasters and tiled coping. It terminates in a square pier with a faceted cap, with a lower ramped return terminating in a similar but lower pier. Matching gate piers support a cast iron gate with margin panels featuring enriched dog bar details beneath a shaped scrolled overthrow terminating in a tall finial. A brick arched gateway opens to the service yard.

The house was built for Robert Horne-Payne, who had previously lived at The Hermitage on Shenfield Road. Little is documented about Hugo R. Bird beyond his work here, though the design follows contemporary principles set out by architects such as Ernest Newton, employing subtle asymmetries that make the composition nearly but not exactly symmetrical, with contrasting treatments of the entrance and garden fronts. The house exemplifies the high quality craftsmanship typical of the period, particularly in joinery, and remains remarkably intact, preserving a comprehensive picture of how the household operated. Contemporary gardens survive with the remains of a formerly-thatched garden pavilion and a small bridge on the main drive. Adjacent converted stables and a gardener's house remain on the property. The gardens overlook the former County Cricket Ground, in which Horne-Payne, despite being an invalid, maintained a keen interest.