Leith Hill Place

WOTTON C.P. ETHERLEY HILL TQ 14SW

6/110 Leith Hill Place 11/11/66 GV II*

Country house. Circa 1600 largely rebuilt in c1760 in Palladian style (Pevsner) although some claim that rebuilding and extensions date from early C18 and the time of General Folliott. Originally brick and Bargate stone, refaced to north with roughcast and render, stone clad to south with low pitched, hipped slate roofs. H-shaped plan. Two storeys and attics, to centre, under three horizon- tally sliding sash, hipped roof dormer windows. Three storey pedimented wings to either end with plat bands over ground and first floors, moulded eaves cornice to centre. Ridge stacks to left and right of centre and rear. One 12-pane, glazing-bar sash window on each floor of each wing in projecting architrave surrounds. Five bay range to centre with four similar windows on the first floor, two either side of centre, and 12-pane, glazing-bar sash windows below. Central two storey, flat-roofed porch with angle piers on the ground floor, cornice plat band over and one 12-pane, glazing-bar sash window to the first floor. Double doors below of elaborate design with studding and oval lozenge-shape panels in architrave surround. Top two panels glazed. Service courtyard and buildings to left. Right hand return front - old Bargate stone plinth exposed. Rear Garden Front:- Four dormers in roof. Five glazing-bar sash windows to centre range, one window on each floor of wings, those on first floor pedimented. Tripartite windows under hood lintels on ground floor. Wings with pulvinated frieze. Central Serlian door case to ground floor with arched head under open pediment. Interior:- C16 fireplace and panelling. Sober C18 staircase and later C18 fire- places. In 1847 the house was bought by Josiah Wedgewood III, whose brother-in- law and cousin, Charles Darwin frequently stayed with him here. One of his daughters was mother of Vaughan-Williams O.M. the composer, whose childhood was spent here. The house is sited in the slopes of Leith Hill and commands some of the finest views in the County of Surrey.

PEVSNER: BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND, SURREY (1971) p.342-3.

Listing NGR: TQ1338342362