Ivy Haven Windy Ridge

Ivy Haven and Windy Ridge are a pair of experimental smallholders' dwellings built between 1919 and 1920 by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. The buildings are timber framed and weatherboarded, resting on brick sills with tiled roofs. They are bilaterally symmetrical, featuring a recessed central section with entrances located under wide eaves, and 2-bay gabled cross wings at each end. The doors are bead moulded and boarded, with a propped timber porch; the entrance to Ivy Haven has been altered and enclosed in a later porch. The windows are made of paned timber. There is a brick stack on the party wall and five flue stacks on the cross wings. At the rear, there is a single storey wing attached to the cross wing. The walls are constructed of framed studding with elm weatherboarding, and they are lined internally with diamond steel wire lattice to support haired plaster. The party wall is made of brick, while the internal partitions are timber framed. The front rooms have suspended floors. This pair is part of the second group of experimental buildings designed to utilize local materials and traditional construction methods, and it is the only surviving example of this timber construction experiment.