Poynders End

Poynders End is a house built in 1906, designed by Geoffrey Lucas as a wedding present for Hugh Exton Seebohm, son of Frederick Seebohm. The house is constructed largely in roughcast with some red brick in English bond, and features very steep dark red tile roofs with swept valleys.

The building is a tall L-shaped structure of two storeys with a cellar and attics, designed in the Free Jacobean style. It is entered from the west, with main rooms facing east. A single-storey arcaded outhouse and garage range extends to the south and faces east.

The interior plan is informal. The large L-shaped drawing room occupies the north end of the range and is lit by a rectangular bay window at the north-west and a semi-octagonal bay on the east. The dining room features two similar semi-octagonal bays on the east side and is separated by a passage from the large stair hall on the west side of the house. Service rooms including the kitchen, butler's pantry and other facilities occupy the southern parts and project in a short gabled wing on the west, answered by a cross-gable on the east front. The front entrance opens onto a small lobby with doors leading directly into the drawing room and into the staircase hall.

The west side of the house is austere in appearance, featuring a full-height narrow gabled porch with a four-centred arched moulded oak entrance. A three-light flush mullioned wooden leaded casement window sits on the first floor, with a small lozenge-shaped decorative window in the gable. Two canted dormers are positioned on the roof slope, and a massive red brick internal central chimney with a corbelled top rises prominently. The west side also displays a six-light casement window to the staircase hall and a row of three small two-light windows on the ground floor. The west gable of the projecting wing shows a symmetrical display of casement windows in horizontal bands, with a four-light casement window over a long band on the first floor composed of three two-light casements separated by two decorative plaster panels with a lozenge motif, all beneath a continuous drip. A four-light casement window sits on the ground floor below. A tall red brick chimney rises in the north roof slope of the wing.

The east front is asymmetrical, featuring three two-storey semi-octagonal large bay windows with roughcast aprons and red brick bases. A recessed loggia in red brick separates the northern bay from the two that light the dining room. A wrought iron sundial mounted on oak panelling over the loggia is joined with butterfly dovetails and bears a Greek inscription. The bays contain transomed mullioned casement windows with rectangular leaded panes. Double doors off-centre in the loggia lead into the stair lobby. The southern part of this front has flush mullioned wooden windows with leaded glazing, including a five-light window to the ground floor and three two-light windows to the first floor. The south gable features a wide oriel window with a cove beneath and elm boarding to the jettied gable triangle above.

The north gable end presents a carefully designed asymmetric composition. A projecting massive gable chimney in red brick is flanked at each level by small two-light windows with rounded heads to the lights. A large rectangular two-storey bay window with a tiled gabled roof, brick base and cast lead decorative panelled apron to the jettied upper storey completes this elevation. The original double garage at the south end of the group rises above the outhouse and is accessed by a recessed covered way with a timber arcade. A wrought iron wind-vane bearing the date and initials adorns the garage.

The interior features a Jacobean moulded string staircase with turned pine balusters, an oak moulded hand rail, and heavy square newels. Each tread is a triangular section of elm moulded on a sloping soffit. The drawing room has painted white panelling and a wide four-centred stone fireplace with a herringbone tile pattern to the fireback. The dining room features a simpler four-centred fire screen and a ceiling decorated with lozenge-shaped bosses with loops for oil lamps. The butler's pantry is complete and fitted. The half landing of the stair includes a deep recess and the service rooms behind are arranged on a mezzanine plan.