Little Molewood

House. 1903-4. Designed by architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin for Alfred Graveson.

The building is constructed in pebbledashed brickwork with a clay tiled roof featuring exposed rafter ends and a red brick chimney with projecting tile band. The plan comprises two three-bay rectangles—one containing main living accommodation and the other service rooms—positioned across each other, offset by one bay, with the entrance located in the re-entrant angle between them.

The two-storey structure displays Arts and Crafts free style with vernacular influences. The principal south-west elevation, which faces the sloping garden, features on its first floor two four-light pebbledashed mullioned windows with alternate iron opening casements and fixed lights, all leaded. A central recessed balcony is set above, containing a boarded door at the left with an upper leaded glazed panel with arcaded head, and a timber balcony front of plain wood splats with a deep handrail. The ground floor has two similar windows beneath a tile-coursed dripmould, with a central recessed loggia now covered by a projecting porch containing leaded French windows and fixed sidelights, topped with a lean-to tiled roof. The glazing runs into the corners, which are stabilised by battered diagonal buttresses, with two-light return windows on both first and ground floors. The entrance sits within a half-octagonal recess at the junction of the two main blocks, featuring an oak boarded front door backed with ledges, with an upper leaded glazed panel with arcaded head and moulded sill.

The rear service block, set down from the road frontage, has a central projecting gable with clasped battered buttresses, a tiny attic window, and two three-light leaded windows.

Internally, the house is progressively planned with two main sitting rooms opening onto a central vestibule from which a staircase rises. The architects designed a comprehensive range of fittings including fireplaces and small details such as door latches and window catches, most of which remain in place. The Sitting Room contains a recessed inglenook fireplace with flanking high-backed boarded settles and bookshelves above to the left. The original plain red brick fireplace with copper hood has been replaced with a 20th-century yellow stock brick arched fireplace. Exposed perimeter beams and ceiling joists are visible throughout. Broad double-leaf boarded doors with small upper leaded lights, fitted with wooden latches and bolts, open into the Dining Room. A recessed low-level settle with sloping battened back sits below the half landing of the staircase, with panelled cupboards above flanking a central arched recess and a leaded light in return. A butler's pantry off the entrance hall retains original china cupboards with glazed doors.

The dog-leg stair rises from the hall with a close string; the lower flight has a substantial newel with chamfered tongued top and plain wood splats pierced with a spade motif, with a moulded handrail and landing rail similarly detailed. Ledged and boarded doors throughout are fitted with architect-designed wooden latches. The bathroom contains cupboards with framed boarded doors pierced with a leaf motif. Bedrooms expose tie beams from roof trusses in their ceilings. The roof structure was not accessible for inspection.

Barry Parker (1867-1947) and his partner and brother-in-law Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) were best known as pioneers of town planning, responsible for layouts and grouped housing designs at New Earswick (from 1902), Letchworth Garden City (from 1904), and Hampstead Garden Suburb (from 1905). Their practice, founded in 1896 in Buxton, Derbyshire, designed over 100 individual houses, many with fitted furniture. Little Molewood exemplifies the architects' radical and total approach to domestic design. The client, Alfred Graveson, a Quaker like Parker, co-owned with his brother a large drapery department store on Maidenhead Street and Market Place.