Coval Court

Coval Court is a detached house built in the early 20th century and attributed to M.H. Baillie Scott, designed in the Arts and Crafts style.

Materials and Construction

The house is constructed of brick finished with pebble dash rendering, with tiled roofs and timber casement windows throughout.

Plan and Layout

The building has a broadly L-shaped plan. The main portion of the house runs from north-west to south-east, with an additional north wing that was added very early in the building's history, before 1915 according to historic mapping evidence.

Exterior Design

The house has no single principal façade, as all elevations were designed to be of architectural interest, though the north-east section housing the service accommodation is less distinguished. The exterior is characteristic of Baillie Scott's work from this period, following his principle of simple, unadorned exteriors dominated by steep roofs with minimal small openings.

The roofs are notably steep, in some places sweeping down to ground floor level. They are punctuated by tall, plain rendered chimneys and provide visual interest through their contrasting styles—mixing hips and gables—and varying angles. A stair turret on the north-west elevation adds to the organic aesthetic favoured by the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Windows are plain timber casements with leaded lights and notably lack window cills, a deliberate device used by the architect to maintain an uninterrupted building line. The exceptions are projecting bay windows on the south-east and south-west elevations, purposefully designed to create view lines into the garden and establish a connection between interior and exterior spaces.

The front door, located on the north-west elevation, is a solid construction of broad planks and studs with a central arched light covered by a decorative grill and distinctive door furniture. Baillie Scott was known for his meticulous attention to detail, ensuring that doors and ironwork—typically commissioned from local blacksmiths—were unique to each building. A back door provides access to the service area on the north-west side, whilst French doors lead from the drawing room into the garden. The French doors appear to be a later addition, likely installed when a verandah was added in the mid-20th century.

Small areas of the exterior feature different treatments. The south-east elevation of the north wing displays half-timbering and smooth rendering. Whilst half-timbering is typical of Baillie Scott's work, smooth render is not, suggesting this façade may have been remodelled despite the wing itself being an early addition. Small sections of tile hanging appear on the north-west elevation on a hipped dormer window and on the north-east elevation adjacent to the stair tower, adding further visual interest.

Alterations and Additions

The house has undergone several modifications since its original construction. The north wing was added to increase accommodation and was completed very early in the building's life, certainly by 1915. It is executed in a complementary style, likely by the same architect. The house may have experienced some limited remodelling at the same time, possibly including redecoration of the dining hall.

A mid-20th century verandah wraps around the south-eastern corner of the house. A store was added at the north-west corner, north of the original store and pantry, probably around the same period. This addition has created somewhat awkward entrance arrangements to the back door. Neither the verandah nor the store extension is considered of special architectural interest.

Interior Arrangement

The accommodation is distributed over three floors. The entrance hall features built-in panelled cupboards with original ironwork and opens into spacious, decorative living accommodation comprising a drawing room, dining hall, and what is now known as the billiard room.

The drawing room has a decorative plaster ceiling divided into diamonds with foliate panels. The same foliate design is repeated on the beams and cornice. The room contains a moulded fire surround with a modern fire insert, a window seat in the east wall, and French windows (a later addition) leading to the garden.

The dining hall has a similar decorative plaster ceiling, but its walls are finished in wood panelling. Paired Tudor-style arches form its north wall, dividing it from the adjacent hall and stairs. Evidence within a cupboard between the dining hall and kitchen indicates that the panelling is an early addition and that the walls were originally decorated in a burgundy paint colour scheme. The room contains an original brick fireplace with a round arched opening.

The billiard room is also wood panelled, with panels in diminishing sizes. A broader arch divides the room, and another arch sits above the inglenook fireplace in the west wall. This inglenook is decorated with Delft tiles, though the central fireplace is a replacement.

Throughout the ground floor, there is an attractive range of original iron window and door furniture, as well as iron lanterns in the dining hall and billiard room.

The service rooms are grouped towards the north-west of the house and comprise a kitchen, pantry, laundry, and store room. There is also a toilet and a boiler room, both accessed from the garden. The kitchen is the most altered, with modern units and flooring. However, the pantry and laundry retain Belfast sinks, the latter with an integral scrubbing board. The scullery, which had a Belfast sink and Delft tile splashback, was removed around late 2006 to enlarge the kitchen accommodation.

The dog-leg staircase occupies the centre of the house between the dining room, billiard room, and kitchen. It has plain balusters and a storey-height square newel post.

The first floor houses several bedrooms and bathrooms. There are three marble sinks with marble splashbacks: two manufactured by Royal Doulton and one by John Bolding & Sons, Grosvenor Works, London. The main bathroom has a marble floor.

Two fireplaces are located on the first floor. One in the master bedroom is of marble with a wooden surround and an inserted gas fire. The other, in the north wing, is also in marble with an inserted gas fire. The former pebble-dashed external wall can be viewed internally at first floor level, confirming the subsequent addition of the north wing.

A very steep stair provides access to three attic rooms above. Two of these rooms have similar small fireplaces of typical Baillie Scott design, with surrounds decorated with a trio of circular rose medallions and iron grates. One has a glazed red-tiled hearth.

Original window and door furniture is found throughout the upper floors, although there has been some replacement, particularly where internal glazing units have been fitted to windows, necessitating removal of the window latches.

Historical Context

Coval Court is believed to have been built by M.H. Baillie Scott sometime between approximately 1900 and 1904. Baillie Scott was an eminent architect working in the Arts and Crafts style, an English aesthetic reformist movement at its height between approximately 1880 and 1910. The movement influenced architecture, garden design, decorative arts and crafts, and furniture design, representing a reaction against perceived soulless mechanisation and a return to quality craftsmanship in an affordable manner.

Baillie Scott was a prolific architect in this genre, with over 300 designs to his name, though not all were realised. He initially lived and practised on the Isle of Man, with his earliest commissions dating to the 1890s. Between 1902 and 1914, he practised from Fenlake Manor, a small cottage outside Bedford. During this period, he was at the height of his reputation, having matured his style and producing some of his most characteristic work.

Baillie Scott designed several properties in Sunningdale, Berkshire, in the early 20th century, including Greenways (1906), Elvetham Lodge (circa 1906-9), a house in Devenish Road (circa 1906-9), and made alterations and additions to the Ridgemont Estate (circa 1909). It had been assumed that his first property in the area was Heather Cottage in 1904-6, although Coval Court may pre-date or be contemporary with this house. An inventory for the lease of the Coval Court land dated December 1904 describes a newly built house on the site. Heather Cottage, now demolished, was a bungalow with an integral Baillie Scott garden design, built on a plot adjacent to and south-west of the Coval Court site.

Unfortunately, no published or unpublished drawings or documents relating specifically to Coval Court survive, although architecturally the house is typical of Baillie Scott's work. The architect left virtually no documentation beyond his published works, as a serious fire destroyed the contents of his Bedford office in 1911, and further damage occurred to his later London office during the Blitz.