Long Barn

Long Barn

Detached house designed in 1925 by architect Edgar Ranger for his own occupation, built in Arts and Crafts style by local builder Piper. The building has undergone later 20th-century alterations with a one-storey annexe and two-storey garage to the east and a two-storey addition with conservatory to the west, neither of which are of special interest.

The ground floor is constructed of stretcher bond varicoloured brick with the first floor of handmade tiles, except for the central gable to the south which is timber-framed with plastered infill. The roof is tiled with a series of gables and three very tall chimneystacks in two-inch bricks, two set diagonally. Windows are irregularly placed metal casements with leaded lights. The main entrance on the south-east side features an oak plank door with original ironmongery beneath a brick Tudor arch.

The original plan comprised a small entrance lobby to the south-east leading to a narrow staircase hall that originally communicated directly with the adjoining lounge, which occupies most of the south side. An original photograph shows the lounge could be divided into two spaces by a central curtain. The dining room led off the hall to the north-east, while the north-western side contained service rooms: kitchen, scullery, larder, coal and logs store. The upper floor contained five bedrooms, a dressing room, bathroom and boxrooms. Attached to the west was a motor house on the ground floor with an architect's studio above, approached externally by wooden steps.

The north or entrance front has two windows: one over the front door to the south, the other in a gabled projection facing south and west. A two-storey section of lower elevation is attached to the eastern end, with the ground floor originally a motor house featuring exposed framing with herringbone brick infilling and the upper storey tile-hung with two casement windows. The upper floor was built as an architect's office and is approached by wooden steps. The south or garden front has three gables. The central gable was originally timber-framed and flush with the other gables but was later extended, probably by Ranger, so it now projects on wooden piers and has a first-floor oriel window with hexagonal leaded lights. The flanking gables each have a casement window with varying numbers of lights. The west side has a catslide roof to the south with a large gabled dormer and a range with hipped roof behind featuring a first-floor oriel. The north side has a large gabled dormer to the west and a catslide roof over the kitchen below, with a timber-framed gable to the east featuring a four-light mullioned and transomed window.

The entrance lobby has a beamed ceiling and opens onto an oak dogleg staircase with wide stick balusters and octagonal newelposts with moulded knops and pendants. The lounge features exposed ceiling beams with decorative adze marks and moulded plaster cornices with vine motifs. The windows contain coloured armorial glass roundels. Originally there was a large four-centred stone fireplace with herringbone brick infill at the eastern end and a smaller brick fireplace at the other end; the eastern fireplace has been replaced by a late 20th-century cocktail cabinet and the western by a large stone bolection-moulded fireplace. A late 20th-century screen in matching style now separates the lounge from the hall. A series of oak-panelled doors are present throughout. The dining room has a ceiling of cross beams with ovolo moulding and runout stops, and a plastered frieze with honeysuckle motif. It contains two panelled doors and a serving hatch, with a stone four-centred fireplace having grapevine to the spandrels. The window features fine quality stained glass inserts of bucolic scenes: one depicting a shepherd and shepherdess, the other a shepherd and his flock. The service end of the building retains the original service bells. The former architect's office retains oak wall-framing with picturesque, slightly curved tension braces and a corner brick fireplace with four-centred arch. The other bedrooms do not retain any original fittings.

Edgar Ranger (1888-1971) was a prolific architect influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, M H Baillie Scott, Sir Edwin Lutyens and others. He began private practice in Gerrards Cross in 1911, designing a house called Old Basing for his own use, but moved to Broadstairs following war service in 1919. In 1930 he became a licentiate of the RIBA and in 1931 was elected a Fellow. He designed approximately 40 houses in Thanet, including Long Barn, and others elsewhere in the southern counties before moving to Marlow in Buckinghamshire in 1934. During the Second World War he worked as an architect with a government ministry and subsequently moved to Pinkneys Green, Maidenhead. In 1951 he converted three 16th-century cottages at Curridge near Newbury for his own use. His houses were featured in articles in Country Life, Ideal Homes, The Builder, Studio Year Book of Decorative Art, Architecture, Architecture Illustrated and other publications including French and German magazines.