Sacombe House With Attached Service Blocks And Wall To East

Sacombe House with Attached Service Blocks and Wall to East

Country house, now offices and flats. Built 1803–1806 for G. Caswall, altered around 1835 for W. Gambier, and with interior remodelling in 1911 for Mrs A.S. Hay. The building is constructed of yellow stock brick with tuck pointing and stone dressings with some cement render. The main block has a flat roof while the service blocks have slate roofs.

The house is designed in Neo-classical style with a plan of 11 by 9 bays and two storeys. The garden elevation is arranged as 3:5:3 bays with a central hexastyle portico in antis. This portico features giant Greek Doric columns of cement render dating to around 1835, which replaced the original Corinthian order. Within the portico are ground floor French windows and first floor glazing bar sashes, with a coffered soffit. On either side are flanking three-bay full-height bows with recessed sashes set in gauged brick flat arched heads with stone sills; the ground floor bows are notably tall with glazing bars. A continuous stone cornice rises to a brick parapet, which was rebuilt in 1911 to replace an earlier attic storey and features balustraded panels to the centre with stone capping. Four tall axial stacks with stone cornices rise from the roof.

The entrance front is on the left return from the garden, arranged as 2:5:2 bays breaking forward to a centre. It features glazing bar sashes, with blind openings to the two right bays and to bays 4 and 6 on the first floor. A tooled stone plinth and plat band support a cornice to the brick parapet with balustraded panels to the centre. The central three bays carry a tetrastyle Greek Doric ashlar porch, also of around 1835, with paired double doors that are fielded and panelled with bay leaf frieze and a semi-circular traceried fanlight within a round-headed reveal with roll moulding, flanked by tall sashes. A Sun Fire Insurance Marker is set over the first floor central window.

The right return from the garden is arranged as 3:3:3 bays with a central semi-circular bow featuring ground floor French windows with steps up to the centre; elsewhere are glazing bar sashes with stone plinth and plat band. Dummy windows appear on the ground floor to the left, with blind openings to the first floor left bay.

The rear elevation is arranged as 2:5:2 with an inserted mezzanine and cellar to the centre. This elevation is plainer, with two-light casements and a central entrance within a round relieving arch. The end bays project slightly and feature glazing bar sashes with a plat band to the right.

The interior reflects careful 1911 remodelling that follows the original arrangement. The entrance hall features Corinthian pilasters with a segmental arch over a Doric screen opening to the stair hall, which contains a cantilevered imperial stair with gallery and iron railings beneath a segmental vault rising to an oval lantern. Ground floor rooms retain Neo-classical chimney pieces and cornices to coved ceilings. A secondary stair with moulded ramped wreathed handrail also benefits from top lighting. Some original fittings survive in the kitchen.

The service blocks are attached to the rear right. A nine-bay service range extends from the rear of the main block, featuring sashes, parapet, and two cross axial stacks with stone cornices; a one-storey projection was added around 1900. To the left is a three-bay one-storey block, the former meat and game larders, with a panelled door featuring a semi-circular fanlight in a round-headed reveal, blind openings, and a hipped roof. The rear end of the main service range is symmetrical, arranged as 3:3:3 bays, with the taller kitchen flanked by larders and scullery. The kitchen features large sashes with blind panels above rising to a coped parapet. A lantern crowns the hipped roof, with a square base rising to a round belfry with four arched panels and a domical head with weathervane; the outer bays have narrow blind openings flanking windows. Facing the service yard, the main service range is arranged as 2:3:2 bays breaking forward to the centre, with segmental-headed relieving arches over an entrance to the right, which has a fanlight and glazing bar sashes, and a coped parapet. Extending from the rear right of the main block at right angles is a late 19th-century wall standing 4 to 5 metres high; a doorway through has stone impost blocks and a gauged brick flat arched head. Enclosing the third side of the service yard are the former dairy and laundry. The dairy extends for 12 bays in low two storeys, with four doors, three windows and blind openings with blind panels above, and a stone coped parapet. The laundry is five bays, one storey, with four glazing bar sashes and entrance beneath a hipped roof.

A wall extending from the main block to the dairy continues eastward in a segmental curve for approximately 70 metres, enclosing a formal garden. This wall has two openings with buttresses to the rear.

Historical context: The present Sacombe House replaced a large medieval house that was demolished in 1783. In 1710, E. Rolt planned a rebuilding initially to have been designed by Vanbrugh, though a later design by Gibbs was eventually adopted. The gardens were laid out by C. Bridgeman in 1715, with an embattled garden wall by Vanbrugh that was demolished in the late 18th century. A few traces of Bridgeman's work remain to the south-east of the house.