Flowers Court And Associated Buildings

Flowers Court and Associated Buildings, Pangbourne

Flowers Court is a house of late 16th or early 17th century origins, formerly known as Flowers Farm, with substantial alterations and additions dating from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The main building is constructed largely of red brick with blue bricks to the east elevation. Timber framing, tile roofs and some flint rubble are also present.

The original plan was a simple two-cell lobby-entry dwelling, with a room either side of a central chimney stack. The house has been extended to the west and to the north over successive centuries. It now has a broadly rectangular plan and rises to three storeys, with a third attic storey accommodation within the half-hipped tile roof, lit by roof dormers that do not align with the bays below.

The principal elevation facing east displays blue brick with red brick 'treillage' decoration and quoins. The façade is asymmetrical with broadly six bays. To the south are two pairs of bays with large and handsome leaded cross windows to ground and first floor levels, which have shallow brick arches at ground floor. These flank a further bay containing a Georgian style doorcase with Doric style columns with elongated capitals supporting a moulded cornice with dentil decoration. The door is panelled with a plain overlight. A further bay to the north has similar windows and is adjoined by a modern kitchen extension. An off-centre main chimney stack rises from the principal elevation, with additional later stacks to south and north.

The rear elevation onto a small courtyard is dominated by a cat-slide roof and a projecting gabled stair tower which is half-timbered with a large leaded stair window. The first floor is lit by gabled roof dormers and the second by flat roof dormers. A single storey gabled extension to the north adjoins a tall chimney stack. The base of this elevation is in flint rubble. Stepped end stacks appear on both the south and north elevations, though the north elevation is now partly obscured by modern porch and kitchen extensions. The kitchen extension added to the north in the late 20th or early 21st century is not of special interest.

Internally, the original two-ground-floor-room plan is evident, comprising what are now the sitting and drawing rooms, divided by the shared central chimney stack. The west wall of these rooms represents the original outer wall of the early house. The drawing room contains an original inglenook fireplace of late 16th or early 17th century date with chamfered overmantle and uprights. The sitting room fireplace is a much later Georgian style addition, as is its panelling, which appears to be reproduction work.

To the west lies further service accommodation in the outshot, added in the 18th century. The 18th century kitchen, now the dining room, features tile floors and timber framing, with a door to a former apple store within the roof space (now a bathroom). A bread oven and chimney were added to the west in the late 19th century. A particularly impressive north door with highly decorative hinges and lock (upside down) of probable ecclesiastical origin was added as part of the late 19th century aggrandisement. An open-well staircase and stair tower are also late 19th century additions in a historicist style, incorporating re-used panelling of possible 17th century date at ground floor level. The banister and newel posts are later additions. Throughout the house, door and window furniture is of good quality, with ironmongery largely of late 19th and early 20th century Arts & Crafts style. Good quality plank and panelled interior doors survive, and a number of 18th century moulded and pegged door frames are present, particularly on the upper floors. A single room cellar with brick floor lies to the south.

The architectural development of Flowers Court reflects its transformation from simple vernacular dwelling to country house over several centuries. In the 18th century, modifications improved and expanded the service areas to the west and north, with the roof extended into a cat-slide and further accommodation including a kitchen provided in the outshot. The buttery and granary were added at the same time, forming a small service yard to the west. The Pangbourne tithe map of 1841 shows this configuration, with the rectangular house and two outbuildings to its west corresponding to the buttery and granary. The map also shows further buildings, including barns around a farmyard, to the north. The tithe award details indicate that the farm was then owned by the Reverend George Hulme and occupied by Charles West. Late 19th century alterations served to improve and aggrandise the property, including the addition of a Queen Anne style east garden front and a rear stair tower. A bread oven and chimney were also added to the west of the kitchen, with these additions documented by examination of early Ordnance Survey maps. In the early 20th century, further minor improvements included landscaping of the yard and terrace. Limited alterations have occurred since the early 20th century.

The Granary, located to the west of Flowers Court, dates to the 18th century and is rectangular on plan. It is a single storey structure with a red brick plinth, possibly a later addition, supporting weatherboarded walls beneath a hipped tile roof. A single broad plank door in the east elevation is approached by brick steps. The interior is a single space with a queen-post roof with exposed rafters and purlins. A timber framed triple-light window at high level is positioned to the rear.

The Buttery, also to the west of Flowers Court and dating to the 18th century, is L-shaped and bi-partite on plan. The western narrower part is brick built with a pitched tile roof and a door and window opening in the west gable end, which has been modified. The main buttery to the east is also brick built but broader north-south, with a hipped tiled roof open to the south, its roof supported on wooden piers. A diamond-leaded two-light casement window is positioned to the east. Internally, brick benches with tile slabs for butter-making survive against the north and east walls.

Flowers Court is of special interest as a late 16th to early 17th century vernacular house with later but equally interesting campaigns of alteration and extension. The architecture and plan-form detail its development from simple vernacular to country house, particularly in how aggrandisement was managed through working around the existing property. Although there have been minor modern alterations, these have not had a detrimental impact on the historic fabric. Good quality materials and surviving internal features, fixtures and fittings are present throughout, including the fine original inglenook fireplace with chamfered surround and good quality interior doors and door and window furniture. The adjoining granary and buttery, constructed as part of the service accommodation for Flowers Court, form a significant group with the main house.