The Hollands

THE HOLLANDS

A house built in 1835–6 to the designs of Decimus Burton for the Reverend H. Cholmoudeley, with late 19th-century service blocks added. Renovations were in progress at the time of survey in 1989.

The building is constructed of stuccoed brick with slate roofs finished with lead rolls. The stacks have rendered shafts and a variety of chimney-pots, including some flared 19th-century examples.

The house follows an overall double L-plan. The early 19th-century phase is L-shaped, with the main range facing south-south-east. The entrance is positioned on the north side, with three principal rooms facing south. The entrance leads into a heated hall with a wide passage along the north side containing the stair. The original kitchen block occupies a rear left (north-west) wing at right angles. A second L-plan block was added later, including service rooms and a coach house at the north-west corner of the old kitchen, forming the double L-plan and creating a service and stable courtyard behind the original kitchen.

Exterior features are notable throughout. The house is two storeys tall, with shallow hipped slate roofs. A deep projecting moulded cornice runs below the parapet with a platband beneath it, and pineapple finials sit at the corners of the main block. The entrance elevation on the north faces is four bays, with the two left-hand bays slightly broken forward. A wide Tuscan portico in the first bay from the left has pilasters to the rear. A 20th-century front door with fielded panels sits below a fanlight with spider-web glazing bars. The first floor has four 4-pane 19th-century sash windows with moulded architraves; the ground floor has three tall 8-pane sashes with moulded architraves, one of which was under repair at the time of survey. The right return of the early 19th-century service block is four bays with similar parapet, cornice and platband at first floor level, featuring 4-pane sash windows with moulded architraves and three ground floor windows.

The garden elevation on the south of the main block is seven bays with a first floor platband. The tall ground floor windows are 4-over-6-pane sashes set in deep reveals with moulded cornices that extend left and right over louvred shutters. The first floor has 2-light casement windows with 2-panes per light, moulded floating sills on brackets, and louvred shutters. The right (east) return is three bays with matching first floor windows. A conservatory once stood at the east end of the range. The left (west) return is three bays with a matching first floor sash (8-pane in the centre and 4-pane in the outer lights), topped by a pediment on consoles. Blind recesses with moulded architraves flank this window to left and right.

The old kitchen block to the rear is two bays with a slightly lower roof and matching first floor windows. Ground floor windows were being altered at the time of survey, in connection with a new conservatory under construction in the angle formed with the later 19th-century service wing facing south. This wing is four bays with similar platbands, parapet and cornices, featuring four first floor 2-pane mid to late 19th-century sashes with margin panes. One ground floor window is a 3-over-6-pane 19th-century sash; other windows were being altered at survey.

The late 19th-century coach house, now integrated into the house, has a hipped slate roof with an axial stack and faces east into the service and stable yard. Its centrepiece is a tall segmental-arched doorway with paired diagonally-boarded doors, flanked by 6-over-9-pane sashes on the ground floor and 2-pane sashes on the first floor. The rear elevation of the service wing overlooking the yard has various 19th-century sashes and two 19th-century doors. The yard is enclosed on the east side by rendered walls with square section gate piers topped with ball finials.

The interior preserves the principal rooms well, featuring original joinery including shutters and doors. The entrance hall contains a marble chimney-piece with a round-headed niche above, flanked by pilasters. An original open-well stair rises from the hall, top-lit and fitted with slender turned balusters and a wreathed handrail. The east room displays an Adam-style chimney-piece, plaster ceiling rose, and cornices with egg-and-dart and bead-and-reel mouldings. The centre room has a ceiling rose and timber chimney-piece with an eared architrave. The west room, probably the original dining room, features an 18th-century-style chimney-piece and a moulded plaster cornice incorporating stylized applied flowers alongside bead-and-reel, guilloche and egg-and-dart mouldings.

An attractive 19th-century villa with good interior features.