Woodlands Vale, Including Attached Rose Arches, Forecourt Balustrading, Terrace Walling, Alcove, Pergola, Steps, Planters And Ornamental Ponds

Woodlands Vale is a large house on Calthorpe Road, designed by the architect Samuel Sanders Teulon in French Renaissance style between 1870 and 1871 for Lord Calthorpe as a summer residence. Teulon extensively enlarged and altered an existing house dating from 1840-50. The building received further dated additions in 1880, 1894 and 1912.

The original 1840s house survives best at the south and west service end, where it retains its two-storey construction in stone rubble with a hipped slate roof, projecting eaves and numerous sash windows with glazing bars. Teulon's principal work focused on the north entrance front and west garden front. These elevations feature stone rubble walls with a slate roof and tall brick chimneystacks, arranged with irregular fenestration.

The north entrance front is predominantly two storeys but dominated by a three-storey square entrance tower in French Renaissance style, crowned with a very steep hipped slate roof, cast iron cresting and an elaborate wrought iron weathervane. Gargoyles ornament the angles of the bracketed cornice. A circular staircase turret with crenellation and trefoil windows adjoins the main block. Projecting in front of the tower is a 1912 half-timbered porte cochere with an arcaded gallery of three bays to the first floor, featuring turned balusters and a bowed centre section. Adjacent to this, a stone bay dating from circa 1870 was topped with a copper dome around 1912 to house a lift shaft. To its left stands a first floor curved wooden bay with two round-headed lights and a stained glass ground floor window. An end pedimented bay with strapwork contains a terracotta panel with grotesque decoration and a projecting female head in a centre roundel, added after 1873, with a three-light transomed window below.

Attached to the north east are nine round-headed stone arches with polychrome brick voussoirs, each surmounted by a terracotta urn and divided by buttresses, with pierced stone balustrading to the base. Two further sections of stone balustrading, incorporating two elaborate stone gatepiers with globular lights, enclose the entrance forecourt.

The east garden front displays eight irregular windows. Two full-height canted bays with shaped gable parapets and strapwork and finials are divided by a recessed section with French windows to the first floor. Teulon's original ground floor dining room bay was extended in 1880 in sandstone and terracotta, featuring three French windows with cusped heads, blind side panels and garlanded pilasters. A verandah with ornate cast iron pilasters and anthemion and palmette balustrade stands outside the adjoining drawing room bay, though this does not appear in Teulon's plans and may derive from the earlier house. To the left is a narrow bay with cambered head and a round-headed door dated 1870 over the lintel. An elliptical turret with conical roof and weathervane stands further left. The end bay originally had a stone oriel window to the first floor.

In 1894, the large conservatory originally terminating this front was replaced by a stone billiard room with a coved roof and top lights. The oriel window was altered to a casement and the upper floor clad in timber-framing with plastered infill. Also in 1894, a single-storey billiard room wing was added to the south in sandstone with terracotta ornamentation, featuring two windows with a pediment over the central one, composite Ionic pilasters, a convex frieze with floral swags and cornice. A three-sided bay projects at the south end.

Attached garden structures at the southern end include terrace walls with pierced balustrading crowned with terracotta urns, connecting to an alcove with a Moorish arch, seat and Minton tiled floor, and a pergola of square brick piers with pierced stone balustrading at the base and wooden cross beams. These connect to a low pierced stone wall to the east incorporating three ornamental ponds. The central pond is square with four semi-circular planters; the end ponds are rectangular with two semi-circular planters each and red and black tiles.

Interior features from the 1840s house include marble fireplaces in the library, dining room and drawing room, a large well staircase with cast iron balustrading and mahogany handrail, fine mahogany doors, original shutters and storm shutters, and an upstairs lavatory. Teulon provided a series of high-quality interiors, chiefly on the ground floor. The hall has a Minton tiled floor with green dado tiles, a stained glass window bearing the Calthorpe crest and an original boarded ceiling with a stencilled ivy leaf design. The staircase stained glass window is dated 1873 and displays heraldry of the Calthorpe family. Ground floor rooms feature pierced cornices and panelled ceilings. The drawing room has a stained glass window, and the vestibule, originally serving the conservatory and later the billiard room, contains three fine stained glass windows depicting birds, flowers, strawberries, raspberries and cherries. A further stained glass window upstairs shows snowdrops and primroses with the initials SC and LC. The 1894 billiard room contains fine contemporary wooden dado panelling and a wooden fireplace with a Gibbs surround, large console brackets, masks and blank shields, with turquoise tiles featuring a peacock pattern and a brass fireplace. The coved roof has timber ribs and the lantern contains bottle glass. The adjoining cloakroom retains an original Simplicitas lavatory and hand basin. Circa 1912 additions of interest include a spyhole to the front door, a speaking tube to the library and an original lift.

Teulon's designs for the north and east elevations are dated October 1870. Lord Calthorpe was an aide de camp to Lord Raglan during the Crimean War. Woodlands Vale served as a summer residence only, with Lord Calthorpe's principal residence being Elvetham Hall in Hampshire, built between 1858 and 1860 and also designed by Teulon. The designer of the 1880 dining room bay, 1894 billiard room and 1912 porte cochere is not currently known. During the 20th century the building functioned as a hotel for some time but has since reverted to private ownership.