The Grange

THE GRANGE

House, late 1860s, designed by architect George Rake. The building has undergone minor later alterations to the rear, including the addition of a 20th-century conservatory.

EXTERIOR

The house is two and a half storeys tall, constructed of galletted flint dressed with yellow brick quoins, window surrounds and slate roofs. The principal elevation displays strong compositional qualities in its asymmetrical design, featuring a projecting gabled bay, a steep-pitched roof with tall chimneys, and a square turret with a flat-top pyramidal roof set back in the return elevation. The two most prominent gables, positioned to the south and east, have scalloped barge boards with quatrefoil perforations. The overhanging eaves are emphasised by large ornate modillions.

The ground floor contains two bay windows with crenellated parapets. Other windows feature hood moulding, gauged brick pointed arches or stone lintels; all windows retain their original timber frames. The hood-moulded doorway with stiff-leaf foliage stops is set in the return elevation to the east and retains its original timber door.

The western and rear elevations are considerably plainer. The flint here is not galletted, and the composition and fenestration are largely functional. Some windows and doors have been filled in, and others replaced in plastic. A late 20th-century conservatory has been added to the rear. The plastic windows, conservatory and late 20th-century garage in the grounds are not of special interest.

INTERIOR

The interior was not inspected during the listing assessment but is known to contain a good degree of survival of mid-19th-century fabric and features. These include a principal stairway with carved square newel posts and barley-sugar balusters; at least three fireplaces with large marble or stone surrounds and console brackets supporting the mantelshelves; a number of original doors and architraves; ceiling roses; and ornate plaster cornices in the principal rooms. The original plan, illustrated in the 1860s designs created by George Rake, appears largely unchanged.

HISTORY AND SETTING

The Grange dates from the late 1860s and was built for Charles Osborn, the developer of Osborn Road, who may have inhabited the house himself. Although the site was undeveloped in 1868 (the date of the first Ordnance Survey map for the area), plans of The Grange survive dated 1860, suggesting construction took place in the years immediately after the survey. The house appears on the second Ordnance Survey map of 1898.

Osborn Road was laid out from the mid-19th century by Charles Osborn (1794-1859), a Fareham resident. Each building plot is bounded by handsome flint boundary walls which lend the street consistency despite the varying styles and materials used in the villas; these walls are all listed Grade II. All the villas are set back from the street with generous garden space to their forecourts and rears. Taken as a whole, the street exemplifies the mid-late 19th-century approach to architectural style, which saw no inconsistency in placing an Italianate villa next to a Gothic house, or combining the proportions of a late-Georgian building with decorative elements more suited to mid-19th-century taste in a single composition.