Burrows Wood

Burrows Wood is a detached house built between 1936 and 1939 by the architect Oliver Hill (1887–1968) for W Deane and Amy Barnes Brand. The design combines Vernacular Revival and Modernist styles in an unusual synthesis.

Construction and Materials

The house has cavity brick walls to first-floor level faced with thin silver-grey bricks laid in Sussex bond. The first floor of the side and rear elevations is of timber construction faced with cedar shingles. The roof is gabled and tiled, with a tall brick chimneystack at the centre of the north-west side.

Plan

The plan is curved, a variation on the Edwardian butterfly plan. The principal two-storey rooms face south-east to take advantage of the sunshine. The entrance front, facing north-east, is T-shaped, of one storey and attics, with a central projecting integral garage.

Exterior

North-East (Entrance) Front

The entrance front is of one storey and attics, divided by the projecting gabled garage range. The main entrance lies to the south of this projection and the service wing to the north. The central gable is splayed to the sides and has an oval window in the gable end. Set into the rear of this projection, against the body of the main house, is a tall, slightly tapered chimneystack. There is a nine-pane cambered sash dormer on each side of the central gable. To the south are two casement windows with wooden shutters. To the north are original sliding garage double doors and a service entrance.

The south side of the entrance front has one very tall cambered-headed wooden dormer with a twenty-seven-pane sash window lighting the staircase hall, and a shorter twelve-pane sash dormer above the front door. The doorcase is in Queen Anne style with a moulded architrave splayed to the base, a moulded cornice with bolection moulding and blank panel, and a door with eight glazed panels.

The north side has a six-light metal Crittall window to the kitchen and, at the extreme north, a curved projection originally containing coal and coke storage.

South-West (Garden) Front

The garden front has a distinctive curve. It has overhanging eaves. The first floor has five metal-framed Crittall windows with wooden shutters. The ground floor has a recessed central loggia with three-light metal Crittall windows with wooden shutters either side of a central entrance with an original glazed door with circular decoration to the base. The left-side ground-floor window is five-light. The corresponding window to the right, also five-light, retains the original metal frame but the divisions have been removed.

South-East End

The south-east end has three two-light Crittall casements to the first floor. The ground floor has a three-light metal Crittall window and French window with an adjoining window to the west; the mullion has been removed from this window.

North-East Side

The north-east side is similar, with three two-light Crittall windows to the first floor. The ground floor has one two-light window, one four-light window with the central mullion removed, and a replaced French window.

Interior

The staircase hall retains a series of original flush-panelled doors. The staircase and first-floor gallery has a frame of walnut with moulded handrail and newel posts with ball finials, but paler birch curved members forming the balustrade. Originally there was a separate study to the south, but the partition has been removed to make it part of the staircase hall.

The sun room, the south room of the ground floor, has replacement double sliding doors into the central lounge. The lounge originally had a brick fireplace with corrugated asbestos cement sheets set in receding planes and strip lights around it, but this was later replaced by a stone bolection-moulded fireplace.

The dining room to the north originally had bare white walls and retains the serving hatch into the original service end. The kitchen, which has been refitted, now extends across the original kitchen, pantry, and maid's sitting room.

The upper floor has a landing with curved balustrade and circular pier below sloping dormer cheeks. The original sewing room and box room above the garage have been amalgamated to form one bedroom, but the other room divisions survive, comprising two former maids' rooms, two guest rooms, and two principal bedrooms. The dividing wall between two bedrooms was staggered to provide a wardrobe and washbasin in a cupboard in each bedroom. One of the original washbasins survives.

Subsidiary Features

Oliver Hill also landscaped the gardens. An important part of his design was the terrace walling, originally linked to the loggia in the centre of the south-west side of the house by a path and pond, which are now no longer present. The surviving features comprise stone terrace walling incorporating two flights of steps, a further semi-circular shaped flight of steps to the west, and a circular stone feature, originally without sundial. This reflects the curve of the house itself.

History

Oliver Hill designed Burrows Wood for Mr and Mrs Barnes Brand, for whom he had previously designed two other houses in Surrey: Woodhouse Copse at Holmbury St Mary (1924–26, listed grade II) and Raikes Hollow in the same parish, built in 1930 as a speculation. Two other previous major domestic commissions of his in Surrey were Marylands at Hurtwood in 1930 (listed grade II*) and Joldwynds at Abinger Hammer in about 1929 (listed grade II).

According to a 1938 Country Life article about Burrows Wood, "It was the express wish of his clients that the house should not only fit sweetly into its surroundings, but also that it should not be in any way bizarre." The house was seen as "a marriage of two modes, being both modern and traditional in form and structure". The building was designed with a segmental shape to make maximum use of both sunshine and views. Stone-flagged terraces to the south, east, and west sides were also designed by the architect to take the composition down to grassy slopes and the distant view.

The ground floor plan comprised a study and staircase to the north-east, a garage block projecting in the centre of the north-east side, service rooms to the north-west, and the principal rooms comprising sun room, lounge, and dining room on the south-west. The original owners were childless, so the upper floor accommodation comprised the two owners' bedrooms with bathroom, two guests' rooms with bathroom, two maids' bedrooms with bathroom, and over the garage a box room and sewing room.

The 1938 Country Life article particularly remarked on the adoption of the modern American custom of built-in wardrobes and washbasins to the bedrooms, which "deserves to be much more widely adapted here". The house cost £4,758 including ten guineas for the layout of the garden and terrace. Sadly the Barnes Brands did not have long to enjoy their new house, as by the time of a 1947 Ideal Home magazine article the property had changed ownership to a Mr Keith Parkhurst.

Significance

Burrows Wood is a substantially intact house of 1936–39 by the notable architect Oliver Hill which is a most interesting synthesis of traditional Vernacular Revival style to the entrance front and Modernist style to the garden front, on a site landscaped by the architect. It is one of a series of houses built in Surrey by Oliver Hill in differing styles, three of which are already listed (Woodhouse Copse, Holmbury St Mary; Marylands, Ewhurst; Joldwynds, Abinger), the first of these built for the same clients as at Burrows Wood.