Normansfield (Velma) Boathouse

Normansfield (Velma) Boathouse

Boathouse and summerhouse attached to Normansfield House, built in 1884, probably designed by Rowland Plumbe for Dr John Langdon Haydon Down.

The building combines a red brick basement with a timber-framed superstructure featuring rendered panels. A timber platform is supported on a cast-iron column, and the roof is finished in plain tiles with terracotta crested ridge tiles and moulded finials.

The boathouse is aligned east-west with the river to the east. At basement level, the structure features red brick construction with cast-iron fixed light windows beneath segmental arches on the north and south elevations. An entrance with a ledge and braced door sits in the easternmost bay of the north elevation. The wide opening to the river is enclosed by temporary doors, while the western opening has early 20th-century part-glazed doors. Cast-iron shafts and ornate cast-iron brackets on the riverside support a timber superstructure projecting over the water, with mostly renewed timber decking. Timber stairs to the west and balustrade are fitted with square newels, some topped with ball finials, and a largely renewed timber lattice balustrade.

The upper structure is richly decorated in keeping with its riverine position and association with Normansfield House. The timber frame is infilled with plain rendered panels containing a frieze of decorative incised plaster panels depicting plants and abstract foliage on the north and south elevations. The north elevation has a pair of two-light casement windows with leaded coloured glass panes. The westernmost window is set beneath a richly decorated gablet with incised plaster foliate pattern and bargeboards alternating rosettes and leaf patterns. The south elevation is similar but less ornate, with applied timber framing and simple moulded bargeboards, and the window contains clear glass.

The riverside elevation features glazed doors with moulded frames and glazing bars, flanked by similar windows beneath overlights in coloured glass. The timber-framed gable above is richly moulded with a deep coved frieze decorated with incised plaster panels depicting plants and abstract floral patterns. The central incised plaster panel shows a ship flanked by foliate motifs. The roof is deeply oversailing with a boarded soffit and is supported on cusped moulded brackets suggesting waves. The west-facing gable is similar, with a moulded timber bressumer with scrolled cresting, again resembling waves as if forming a base to the boat depicted in the gable. The western entrance has a pair of doors, each divided into three panels filled with leaded coloured glass lights. Within the upper and central panels of the left-hand door are painted glass roundels at the top depicting birds on a japonica bush, with a fish swimming in reeds in the central panel. The right-hand door has been damaged but appears to have been similarly decorated.

The interior is divided by a panelled partition with a wide central doorway creating a lobby, now accommodating kitchen and bathroom facilities. Throughout, the interior is lined with moulded pine boards set diagonally above the dado rail and lining the roof, with the dado lined in vertical boards. Closely resembling the interior of Plumbe's entertainment hall at Normansfield, the principal room features an elaborate frieze of incised timber panels with alternating fleur de lys and fern-like patterns above a deep moulded cornice supported on moulded brackets. The roof contains a single king-post truss. A built-in panelled cupboard is located within the lobby. The stained glass in the northern window, within the lobby, is similarly decorated to the entrance doors, featuring two painted glass roundels depicting birds.