Orchards

Orchards is a house of 1896–1899 designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens as his first major work, built for Sir William and Lady Chance. The house underwent additions and alterations by Lutyens in 1909 and 1914.

The building is constructed of coursed sandstone blocks with tile-on-edge decoration and some tile-hung gables, with ashlar stone surround to the door. It has plain tiled roofs, some hipped, with brick stacks. The plan is quadrangular around a courtyard, with one side prolonged to the west forming an L-shaped entrance linked by an arch. The house is two storeys with attics beneath hipped roof dormers; the east side of the quadrangle is single storey.

The entrance front features the gabled end of the former stable and coach house projecting to the left with battered buttresses to the angles and along the east wall. This section has two storeys and an attic with three hipped dormers and four casements across the first floor, with leaded casements and two doors to the ground floor. The entrance range to the right has two dormers, one above the large through-passage which lights only the rafters. Huge panelled doors with massive hinges and furniture mark the entrance. A massive corbelled stack stands to the left, with double diagonal stacks to the rear right and a front stack to the left in the re-entrant angle with the stable wing. An eight-light window to the ground floor left and three massive studio windows to the right complete this elevation. The courtyard entrance front has two storeys with a central gabled two-storey entrance porch. Four stacks rise high up on the left, balancing two diagonal stacks lower down to the right. Wood-framed leaded casement fenestration provides almost continuous windows under the eaves across the first floor, including a six-light window across the first floor of the porch beneath a timber gable. Ground floor casements flank the central porch with ashlared surround and four-centred arched entrance. A stone rib and brick vault leads to the porch with a ribbed door.

The right-hand court range is single storey and arcaded with three broad arched openings, the flanking ones having tile-coped plinth walls and the central arch open at the base. Tile-on-edge "sunburst" pattern decorates the arches with breathers alternating. The left-hand court range is two storeys and attics with leaded wood-framed casement fenestration and a side door. The garden front features a large gable set off-centre with a smaller tile-hung gable to the left and a double stack between. Wood-framed leaded casements provide a row of seven lights over five lights to the first floor of the main gable. Gable-end attic windows and double arched openings to the ground floor of the right-hand gable end flank large stacks. Single-storey service buildings project from the left-hand return front, facing the formal gardens.

The interiors retain considerable character. The study contains a fireplace of blue and white tiles decorated with cats and a plan of the house with the dedication "Built by Thomas Underwood for William Chance, Edwin Lutyens Architect", designed by Lady Chance (née Julia Strachey). It has side cupboards and four-centred arch to the front with lambs tongue stops to the front lintel, together with fine doors featuring restored escutcheons and door furniture. The hall retains remains of a white marble fireplace and oak floors with a reconstructed screen using old materials. The kitchen has been reinstated in imitation of the original. The corridor and staircase feature a fine staircase based on 17th-century manor house type with square newel posts and small well. Halfway up, a subsidiary stair leads off to a small landing and further corridor. The staircase has carved joists, with the spaces between supporting joists of the top treads left open. The "studio" room flanking the through-passage entrance has a massive brick fireplace running the full height of the room.

The house is set within a Grade II* garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll, both of which were undergoing thorough restoration at the time of re-survey. The garden is noted in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.