'Crow Clump', 'The Corbies' And 'Yaffle Hill'

CROW CLUMP, THE CORBIES AND YAFFLE HILL

This large private house was designed in 1914 by the architectural firm Tubbs, Messer and Poulter in the Arts and Crafts style and built by W G Tarrant on St George's Hill, Weybridge. Around 1950, the house was divided into three separate residential units. The central section, which had been further subdivided to include an upper floor flat, has since reverted to a single dwelling.

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION

The house is built largely of soft red-brown brick laid in Flemish bond. The service wing, known as The Corbies, and part of the central section, Crow Clump, are rendered. Part of the north front and entrance feature timber framing with brick nogging. The roofs are covered in plain tiles, with tall brick chimneys, some built externally against the walls. Stone, tile and timber are used for dressings throughout.

PLAN

The house has an asymmetrical, roughly E-shaped plan. The main entrance faces north, while the west front overlooks steeply terraced gardens. The service wing occupies the east wing. Principal rooms are positioned on the garden side of a longitudinal corridor and landing, all overlooking the gardens to the south. The house has two storeys with attics and a semi-basement. It is divided vertically into three separate units: one to the west of the hall and one comprising the service wing.

EXTERIOR

The entrance front sits under a single pitched roof that rises to a taller hipped roof on the right. To the left, a two-bay gabled rendered upper storey projects slightly forward over a brick ground floor. A timber and brick-nogged porch with a deep pitched roof contains a deeply moulded oak door set back under a moulded four-centred arched entrance; the bargeboards are ornately carved. Above the porch, a four-light window breaks forward slightly.

Windows are irregularly placed timber-framed mullion and transom or plain casements. Ground floor windows have square leaded lights, while first floor windows and dormer windows generally have diamond leaded lights. A long six-light window illuminates the staircase. The gabled bays contain small two-light casements under the eaves. Half-hipped dormers, some of which have been replaced, have tile-hung cheeks and similar leaded casements. The ground floor fenestration to the left of the entrance has been reordered, with the three-light mullion and transom window moved. A first floor window to the left of the entrance has been restored. The northern gabled bay features a large external brick chimney stack with triple moulded shafts, flanked by small inglenook windows.

The left section of the west front has tall paired two-and-a-half-storey gabled bays, timber-framed and rendered above first floor level. To the right, a doorway with replaced glazed leaves, flanked on the right by similar but original tall windows under overlights, is set back under a verandah supported on square shafts. This sits on a brick-edged stone-flagged terrace. Above is a balcony of two bays and one wider bay to the left, each bay framed in a four-centred arched timber architrave with a balustrade of turned timber balusters. A deep hipped roof accommodates a pair of half-hipped two-light dormers. Ground floor openings have moulded stone architraves, while upper floor windows are in flush timber frames. Windows have rectangular leaded lights except on the attic floor, which has diamond leaded lights.

The south garden front is largely brick-built, with the right-hand twin gabled bay and service wing rendered. To the left stands a two-storey brick bow window with a balcony above. Windows have moulded stone mullions and transoms. Set back, a gabled timber-framed attic storey has timber-framed casements and a door. The central section features flush brick and tile dressings over the ground floor openings. Timber-framed mullion and transom windows on a brick and tile base are set behind a verandah with shafts similar to those on the west front. The door has been replaced. A five-light ground floor window and a pair of four-light upper floor windows have timber-framed mullion and transom casements with shallow tile cills, the left-hand first floor window positioned under a brick-nogged gablet. Above are two pairs of full two-light dormers; those to the left with splayed roofs are copies, while those to the right are original. To the right, a ground floor stone bay window supports symmetrical gabled two-bay upper storeys, each bay containing three-light and two-light timber casements with moulded feet and diamond leaded lights. The right return has a large external brick chimney stack.

The service wing is half-hipped with an offset roofline set against a large stack with two rectangular shafts. Two-light and three-light timber mullion and transom casements on the ground floor and two-light first floor casements are set deep under the eaves. Adjacent to the stack are three half-hipped dormers. The east elevation is similarly treated and features a moulded bressumer. A half-hipped roofed garden room projects on the south side beneath a similar first floor casement. At a lower level, but at ground floor height on this front, are a garage and storage area.

INTERIOR

Central Section (Crow Clump): The rear arch of the main door is constructed of vertically set tiles. Similar tiled arches lead onto the corridor and hall and flank the lobby. The hall, reached through a large timber doorcase under a cambered arch with an open panel above containing a moulded mullion, contains a large stone chimneypiece with a moulded timber mantelpiece and diagonally set brick linings. The closed string stairs, above small-panelled linings, have square newels with moulded finials, almost flat moulded balusters and a moulded handrail.

The dining room chimneypiece has a broad moulded mahogany frame, a carved stone bressumer and tiled slips to a cast iron basket grate. The dado and door are similarly panelled in mahogany. Ground floor doors are of two raised and fielded panels with simple robust brass fittings. The ceiling has a single moulded band. The study contains a tall timber overmantel and frame containing a small hearth under a shaped copper hood over brick slips on a stone hearth.

The upper floor landing is divided by a tall timber cambered archway beneath overlights with a central mullion, similar to that on the ground floor. Similar archways define the transverse corridor in the service wing. First floor architraves and integral picture rails have a triangular profile. First floor doors are of eight panels and painted. Upper floor rooms retain timber chimneypieces, several with cast iron basket grates, most with tiled slips. Overlooking the garden, the former sitting room has fitted panelled cupboards flanking a window also with panelled linings and a window seat. The former dressing room has a plain chimneypiece, possibly altered between the wars, with crudely set mosaic tiles similar to those in the bathrooms.

Western Section (Yaffle Hill): The drawing room has an ornate chimneypiece with an eared architrave but a replaced grate. Pilasters to a former screen are now enclosed in an inserted partition wall. The ceiling has a slender moulded foliate band and convex vine leaf cornice. Window fittings are of brass.

The billiard room is lined in three-quarter height small-panelled oak wainscoting, with the door similarly treated. The ceiling has moulded ribs in a lozenge pattern. A large brick baronial fireplace with a brick hood and flanks set against a panelled wainscot is flanked by small windows. The room has been slightly reordered to accommodate inserted stairs. The staircase rises through a former dressing room lined in plastered square panelling. The adjacent bedroom is similarly treated and has a very broad timber chimneypiece with wide tiled slips and a basket grate.

Overlooking the west front, the principal bedroom has a deep window bay under a broad cambered arch with plastered linings featuring a foliate trail. A small neo-Georgian timber fireplace, probably a replacement, has a replaced grate. Bathrooms have mosaic-tiled walls, probably dating from between the wars. The upper stairs have square newels with oak block caps, a moulded oak rail and turned balusters. An upper floor chimneypiece has slender Ionic pilasters and tiled slips to a cast iron grate, and may be reused from elsewhere in the house. Throughout the house, most windows have scrolled window stays and pigtail catches with ornate panels.

Service Wing (The Corbies): The service wing is more simply treated than the main house. On the ground floor, a tall tiled arch terminates the transverse corridor which leads to the garden room, also under a lower cambered tiled arch beneath a long horizontal light with diamond leaded panes. Closed string stairs rising from basement to attic have square newels with incised finials, square balusters and a simple moulded handrail. Doors are of six plain panels, many with moulded iron fittings on lozenge-shaped plates. The upper corridor has a tall oak archway similar to those in the main house.

The former nursery has a plain chimneypiece with a good iron grate and a door of eight panels. Upper floor rooms have small simple chimneypieces with integral iron grates. Some rooms retain plain panelled cupboards. The basement retains a glazed screen in a heavy square frame and a larder with slate shelves.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

W G Tarrant (1875-1942) was born and raised in Hampshire, the son of a police constable. He was apprenticed as a carpenter and in 1895 established a business in Byfleet, Surrey, initially as a carpenter and later as a builder. He became one of the most influential and prolific builders in Surrey during the first half of the 20th century, building extensively in Weybridge, West Byfleet, Pyrford, Woking and later on the Wentworth Estate, Virginia Water. At its peak in the 1920s, his business is said to have employed several thousand men and women. As well as the yard which produced joinery, stone and metalwork, he owned brickfields and nurseries.

Tarrant's first major project began in 1911 with the purchase of 964 acres of land on St George's Hill, Weybridge. This was intended as a private estate for wealthy businessmen, centred on a golf course. A promotional pamphlet, 'Ideal Designs for Houses to be Erected at St George's Hill Weybridge by Mr W G Tarrant', published in 1912 by Seth-Smith and Monro architects, included plans for 20 houses, though not all were executed. Work started in 1912 and continued steadily either side of the First World War until the late 1920s. Almost forty architectural firms contributed to the scheme, notably Pine-Coffin, Imrie and Angell, Seth-Smith & Monro, Tubbs, Messer and Poulter, and Wood & Sarvis. Approximately 120 houses and cottages, including staff accommodation, were built by W G Tarrant Limited.

By late 1914, Tarrant was contracted to produce portable wooden huts for the British Expeditionary Force in France, latterly prefabricated in Britain and assembled in France by women trained at his Byfleet base. Another project was a timber biplane, the Tarrant Tabor, designed to carry a bomb, which crashed on its maiden flight in 1919.

Tarrant was keenly interested in social housing as well as opulent development, building in Byfleet, Pyrford and Guildford. Housing at Stoughton, Guildford was one of the first schemes in the country following the 1919 Housing Act, and in response, Tarrant produced a 'standardised permanent wood and brick cottage type B'. It is implied that this model was used in northern France and Belgium in the regeneration after the First World War. In 1925 he applied for a patent for the 'self-setting block bungalow', exhibited at the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.

This house was commissioned for Mr Thomas Paul Latham, one of two senior managers of Courtaulds. Latham was instrumental in making Courtaulds the first and most widely successful producer of synthetic viscose fabric in the world. In 1919 he was awarded a hereditary baronetcy which he named after this house: Baron Latham of Crow Clump. The house was owned and occupied by the Latham family until 1951. On 2nd August 1951, consent was granted for conversion into three houses.