Norton Bavant

Norton Bavant is a large, prefabricated bungalow, likely built around 1903, constructed from a timber frame clad in corrugated iron sheets in a colonial style. It is a single-storey building with an attic and has a corrugated iron roof with gabled ends. The south garden front features a gabled wing centrally positioned, a window and verandah to the left, and two windows to the right with a French casement window between. The verandah has wooden posts and Tudor arches with pierced spandrels. A squat tower is located on the east end, featuring a timber verandah and balcony above, supporting the deep eaves of a pyramidal roof topped with a wrought-iron finial. The windows are mullion-transom casements with glazing bars in the top lights. A later conservatory has been added to the southeast angle. The rear of the building includes a later outshut, and a small lavatory wing is attached to the northwest rear corner.

The interior retains match boarding to the walls and ceilings, original cast-iron chimneypieces, and original joinery, including panelled doors and a staircase with turned newels. Norton Bavant first appears on the 1:2500 third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1910 and remains largely as it was then. The land was purchased by Elizabeth Gace in 1899, who received permission from Alton Urban District Council in 1902 and 1904 to build domestic dwellings on her land. The building was sold to a Mrs Eliot in 1907, and the property's current name is recorded from 1908. Between 1922 and 1934, Bertha Marion Alexander and Constance Marjorie Alexander, granddaughters of Michael Solomon Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem 1841-1845, resided at Norton Bavant.

Norton Bavant is of special interest as an early 20th-century prefabricated corrugated iron-clad domestic dwelling with attractive detailing, including the verandahs and tower. Such ornate, prefabricated bungalows were constructed around the start of the 20th century, and this example is a relatively rare survival of the type.