Hascombe Court Including Attached Forecourt Walls

Hascombe Court is a small country house built between 1906 and 1907 by J D Coleridge, a pupil of Sir Edwin Lutyens, for Robert Murray, a descendant of the Duke of Atholl. The building is designed in the Vernacular Revival style with a roughly H-shaped plan and a further single-storey wing to the service end.

The north or entrance front is constructed of Bargate stone with red brick dressings. The south front is timber-framed with red brick infill. The east and west fronts are partially of Bargate stone with tile-hung gables. The building is topped with tiled roofs and features eight tall brick chimneystacks with moulded caps. Throughout, lead rainwater heads are cast in the shape of castles, dated 1906 and bearing the initials E H M for the Murray family. The house is two storeys and attics, apart from the single-storey service end to the north west. Windows are wooden mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements with leaded lights.

The north elevation has a recessed centre of three bays with a projecting central two-storey gabled porch. The stone doorcase features a four-centred arch with strapwork decoration, an oak door, and an elaborate coat of arms of the Murray family in a square tablet flanked by console brackets and topped with an obelisk bearing the motto "FYRTH FORTUNE AND FILL THE FETTERS". Projecting wings flank either side: the north east wing is shorter with two windows, while the north west wing has three windows and includes a projecting gable facing east. The north gable features three round-headed brick arches with keystones and impost blocks on the ground floor. The elevation includes some hipped dormers and a single-storey service wing to the west. Attached to the north elevation is a courtyard wall of Bargate stone, between two and six feet high, with triangular tiled coping and incorporating six square stone piers with curved caps. This wall is likely from the 1920s and replaced an earlier smaller forecourt wall that was photographed in 1913.

The east elevation is of Bargate stone to the two north eastern bays. The south eastern three bays project forward. The north wall of this projection features a three-tier staircase window and a round-headed doorcase with tiled arch, keystone, and oak door. Above is a tiled gable with a two-storey canted bay of seven lights. To the south is a tile-hung first-floor gable, in existence by 1913. The ground floor features a loggia of two by three bays with brick round-headed arches with keystones and elaborate wooden balustrading above. The loggia post-dates 1913, replacing an original smaller loggia with brick piers, though the balustrading is original.

The south front is symmetrical with a Bargate stone plinth and timber-framing above, displaying patterns of curved and ogee braces with plain or herringbone brick infill. A recessed centre of five bays is flanked by projecting corner two-storey pavilions with pyramidal roofs and access to gardens. The central ground floor has a five-light square bay. Projecting gabled wings feature seven-light canted bays on both floors.

The west elevation has its southernmost bay timber-framed and includes a Bargate stone crow-stepped external chimney stack. The remainder of this front is tile-hung with a projecting central gable. A one-storey Bargate stone projection with a hipped roof stands against this gable. The south front of the north west service wing has stone ends with a centre supported on wooden piers with brickwork behind.

The large central reception hall features a four-centred arched stone fireplace with a strapwork overmantel, plank and muntin panelling, and a ceiling with oak beams. These features are documented in a Country Life article of 1913. The Jacobean style elaborate carved screen with three round-headed arches was added by Sir John Jarvis after 1921, as were the Jacobean style fretted balusters and square newel posts with elaborate knops to the original well staircase. A 1927 photograph shows the screen in place, though the staircase retained its plainer original balusters at that time.

The study has a Jacobean style plastered ceiling and cornice with strapwork motifs, plank and muntin panelling, and a four-centred stone fireplace with the motto "MELIOREM ESSE SAPIENTIAM FORTITUDINE" above. At the time of survey, the drawing room had been stripped to the brickwork; the plasterwork ceiling was missing and the softwood panelling of the 1920s was not present, though the marble fireplace remained in storage. The billiard room had also been stripped to the brickwork and contained a stone bolection-moulded fireplace of the 1920s. The dining room was not inspected, but photographs in Spring 2000 sales particulars show a 1920s plastered ceiling, panelled walls with Ionic pilasters, and a stone bolection-moulded fireplace. A wooden dogleg service staircase with stick balusters dates to 1906-7.

The first floor features Jacobean style arches to the corridors. A guest bedroom in the west wing has a bolection-moulded fireplace and ribbed ceiling. Further bedrooms contain a marble fireplace and a 1906-7 fireplace with green patterned tiles and wooden surround respectively. Three surviving bathrooms retain their original 1906-7 patterned tiles and fittings. Original panelled doors survive throughout. At the time of survey, the master bedroom had been stripped to the brickwork, retaining only a neo-Georgian fireplace. An east wing front room contains a small 1906 bolection-moulded fireplace with swag decoration and cast-iron firegrate. The bedroom to the north of the main stairs features a fireplace with swag decoration, paterae, firegrate, and moulded cornice. The attic floor retains some small original fireplaces. The roof structure employs kingpost construction to the centre and queenposts to the wings.

The original owner, Robert Murray, was a direct descendant of the Duke of Atholl. Following Murray's death in 1910, the house was purchased by GEB Kennedy, who died in 1921. The property then passed to Sir John Jarvis Bart, who added further Jacobean style features and employed Gertrude Jekyll in 1922 and subsequently Percy Cane between 1928 and 1929 to landscape the grounds. Sir John Jarvis died in 1951.