Former Tile Barn House, Comprising Tile Barn House, Tile Barn Holt And Orton House

Country house, now divided into three separate dwellings. The main house, in domestic scale Gothic Revival, is an 1860s/1870s remodelling by Sir George Gilbert Scott of an earlier house. The 'Tudorbethan' billiard room wing was added in the late 19th or early 20th century by an unknown architect.

EXTERIOR

The main house has been divided into Tile Barn Holt and Tile Barn House, and the wing has been separated off to form Orton House. Both the main house and wing feature decorative facades of knapped flint with grey vitrified brick diapering, and red brick and stone dressings. The building is of two storeys, plus basement and attic levels.

The main south-east frontage is densely fenestrated and almost symmetrical, with a central four-bay section flanked by projecting gable ends with bracketed barge boards. The left gable has a two-storey canted bay window. The porch to the right in the central section has been replaced in the 20th century, with an entrance to the left having been created from a window opening. The windows are mostly four-pane sashes with moulded frames and moulded stone surrounds. The ground floor windows, and first floor window in the right gable, have arches with majolica busts depicting the months of the year within the tympana, hoodmoulds, and moulded stone surrounds with colonnettes with stiff-leaf decoration. Horizontal bands of red brick and grey vitrified brick appear on the main house, and a cill string course at first floor level, with a frieze of stone and knapped flint below. The roof is of grey clay tiles, with red clay tile diapering, with two casement dormer windows. There is a central ridge stack, and large external stacks at either end, with chimneys of red brick with stone cappings. A large walk-in conservatory has been added to the north-east corner of Tile Barn Holt.

The south-west face of the former billiard room wing is of three bays, with the north-west end comprised of two gable ends with an external central stack, with the entrance in a recessed block to the left. The windows are stone mullion and transoms with small leaded panes, with hoodmoulds to ground floor and end windows. Double doors have been inserted in the left hand ground floor window on the south-west face. The cill string course and frieze from the main frontage continue around the wing. The kitchen range to the north-east has been substantially removed, but the survival of original chimneys and stretches of diapered roof in the single-storey extension to the rear of Orton House, and part of Tulip House to the north-east, suggests that some of the kitchen range is retained here. Tulip House is also comprised of an early 20th century addition and modern extensions. It has only a subtle connection at first floor level with Orton House, and is not considered to be of special interest.

INTERIOR

The interiors have undergone remodelling, some possibly dating from the time of the addition of the billiard room wing, and some from the division of the house into three, probably post 1955 auction. An undated plan in the RIBA archives shows the main entrance spaces to the south-east as a hall and morning room, with a corridor and the main staircase to the rear. A photograph from the 1955 auction catalogue shows this space opened up, with columns and a basket vaulted ceiling in the same style as the billiard room. These features remain, but the space has subsequently been re-divided, with the main staircase belonging to Tile Barn House and a new staircase having been inserted in Tile Barn Holt. The former Dining Room in Tile Barn Holt has also been remodelled, with the entrance from the hall being moved, and Gothic Revival features being replaced with Neo-Georgian ones, such as a wood and marble fireplace. Tile Barn Holt retains most of its original moulded doors and shutters, and on the first floor, its stone fireplaces (one seen with marble columns), and decorative cornices, with further fireplaces on the second floor, all Gothic Revival in style.

An auction photograph of the ground floor of Orton House shows a large open panelled room with moulded ceiling beams, containing the billiard table, with steps to a raised area defined by columns with a basket vaulted ceiling. This space retains most of these features, but has lost some of the panelling and has subsequently been subdivided to create living and dining rooms and an entrance hall. There is a marble fireplace in what is now the living room. Stairs to the first floor appear to have been inserted. The interior of Tile Barn House was not inspected.

HISTORY

The building which previously stood on this site was known as Tiled Barn Cottage, and became the residence of Dr John Winterbottom and his wife in 1799. Their eldest son John Frederick (died 1868) inherited the property and is recorded in Kelly's Directory as resident in 1848. J. F. Winterbottom was a barrister, and in 1853 married a wealthy Catholic widow. It seems that not long after this he commissioned Sir George Gilbert Scott to remodel Tiled Barn Cottage. In a letter of 27 May 1879 from C. R. Baker, an assistant of Scott's between 1859 and 1878, to G. G. Scott junior, there is mention of a house in East Woodhay, Hampshire, circa 1847-55, amongst a list of 541 works by Scott senior. East Woodhay lies to the west of Woolton Hill, and the ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1850 out of the parish of East Woodhay. Although the works carried out were described as 'additions', they seem to have amounted to a substantial remodelling, to the extent that there is no visible trace of the earlier building today. The dates given in the letter may also be misleading, as Scott's designs were frequently prepared years before work started. A ground floor plan of a house in East Woodhay for J. F. Winterbottom exists in the Scott papers in the RIBA drawings collection, but is undated. The house does not seem to have been enlarged by 1860, according to a map depicting the proposed diversion of the Newbury Road from in front of the house, but the 'additions' are shown on the 1874 Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map, as Tile Barn.

A later wing, first shown on the 1911 Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map, was added to the north-west corner of the house to contain a large billiard room, and at some point in the 20th century, much of the kitchen range to the north-east was demolished. Tile Barn Estate was sold in separate lots at auction in 1955. At some point after this, the main house was divided into three.

Despite conversion and alterations, the former Tile Barn House has special architectural interest as a handsome small country house built in domestic scale Gothic Revival and 'Tudorbethan' styles, with attractive knapped flint and vitrified brick diapering, the main house being by one of the principal architects of the day, Sir George Gilbert Scott.