Steward'S House

The Steward's House was built around 1900 by architect William Huckvale for Charles Rothschild as part of a comprehensive model estate at Ashton Wold.

Construction and Materials

The house is constructed of coursed rock-faced limestone with Collyweston stone slate laid to diminishing courses on the roof. The building follows a broadly rectangular, linear plan which remains intact. The office and other service functions are located to the rear, with the kitchen and servants' accommodation at the eastern end.

Exterior

The principal southern elevation presents a symmetrical design with a single bay either side of a central gabled bay. The steeply pitched roof features tall stacks of coursed limestone at the ridge and towards the east end, each with linked ashlar shafts and moulded caps. Ashlar ball finials adorn each gable end.

The windows have chamfered stone mullions with ashlar quoins, sills and hood moulds. Ground floor windows are transomed and all contain metal casements. The main entrance is situated at the western end, set back from the main elevation. It is of classical design with a decorative carved frieze above and a six-panelled door.

A single-storey range with an attic, set back from the main façade, sits at the eastern end of the building.

The northern or rear elevation is asymmetrical, characterised by two projecting gable bays. A small washhouse is attached to the rear of the building.

Interior

The linear plan form reflects the building's original use. The eastern end and rear housed the service quarters, with the kitchen, pantry and office forming the functional core. The small office contains a small service hatch window, accessible from a rear lobby, which provided an important contact point between the Steward and other workers on the estate. Estate workers would have been paid from here, amongst other functions.

Well-proportioned rooms with simple but well-executed detail characterise the house, reflecting the elevated status of the Steward. The three main living rooms—the dining room, lounge and drawing room—retain parquet flooring, deep cornices and skirtings, ornate window furniture and four-panel wooden doors. The dining room now contains a 20th-century kitchen and has lost its fireplace and some skirting. The central lounge has had a mid-20th-century fireplace inserted. Despite these losses, the building retains the vast majority of its original features.

At the western end, the main staircase is an imposing feature, illuminated and enhanced by a large, stepped mullioned and transomed window reaching almost to roof level. The newel post and balustrades are elaborately carved and continue to the first floor. The underside of the closed string stairs is boxed in with Jacobean-style wood panelling.

On the first floor, three main bedrooms at the front of the building lead from a corridor at the rear. Each bedroom retains its original fireplace, window furniture, deep skirtings and cornices. A partition wall has been inserted to extend the corridor to the east end of the building to incorporate a bathroom and lavatory. Beyond the bathroom, a considerably smaller bedroom with a more simply decorated fireplace sits within the attic space of the single-storey wing. This bedroom provided accommodation for the Steward's service staff and is served by a narrow stair with plain square balusters leading down to the kitchen and service end of the building.

Historical Context

In 1860 the Ashton estate was purchased by Lionel Rothschild. It was described at the time as a very valuable and important landed estate with sporting advantages, but no house adapted for the occupation of a gentleman. Both Lionel Rothschild and his son Nathaniel Mayer, 1st Lord Rothschild (1840-1915), showed little interest in the estate. The only structural work undertaken in the 19th century was the building of a hunting lodge at Ashton Wold.

However, when Lord Rothschild's second son, Nathaniel Charles (1877-1923)—known as Charles—discovered Ashton by accident whilst on a butterfly-collecting expedition with the vicar of Polebrook, he was so impressed by the rich fauna and flora of Ashton Wold that he persuaded his father to build him a house on the site of the hunting lodge.

In 1900 Lord Rothschild commissioned William Huckvale to design not only a house, but a model farm and an entire complement of estate buildings including the Steward's house, stables, gardeners' accommodation, a building to house a fire engine, a petrol store, kennels (now derelict) and a dog hospital. Most of the cottages at nearby Ashton were rebuilt to create a model village. The Rothschilds also became the first landowners in the country to provide their tenants with the luxury of both running filtered water and electricity. The electricity was generated by turbines housed in an old mill below the village on the River Nene, from where water was also pumped to a water tower and distributed to the estate buildings. Each cottage had a bath house and was placed in a large garden planted with a lilac, a laburnum and fruit trees.

High quality design and workmanship were consistent themes throughout the estate, where traditional vernacular building traditions—Collyweston stone slate and thatch roof coverings, steeply pitched roofs, tall chimneys, limestone masonry walling and dressings, and mullioned windows—were all faithfully referenced. Simple working buildings such as cart hovels, wash houses and potting sheds were consciously afforded the same care as the dwellings, farmsteads and garden structures.

The Steward's House was built for the estate manager and is still occupied by the manager today.

Little is known about William Huckvale (1847-1936) who worked mainly for the Rothschilds. After setting up his own practice in London he came into contact with Alexander Parks, agent to Lord Rothschild. He designed a number of buildings for the Rothschilds on the Tring Park estate, undertook considerable work at the Rothschild bank in New Court in the City of London, and was the architect for the Royal Mint Refinery. He also carried out work on the Rothschild estate at Aston Clinton.

Charles Rothschild was a renowned naturalist and became the leading expert on fleas in the country. He published around 150 scientific papers and was also interested in other fields, including the cultivation of rare orchids, irises and water lilies. He was a pioneer conservationist, arguing that the whole natural habitat needed to be protected, not just rare species. He bought part of Wicken Fen in 1899, donating it to the National Trust two years later, and formed the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves in 1912 (now the Royal Society for Nature Conservation). Although the gardens at Ashton Wold took a conventional Edwardian form, he took care to ensure that the planting attracted butterflies and other wildlife, and that much of the estate was left as woodland.

Following his death in 1923 and that of his wife Rozsika in 1940, their daughter Miriam (1908-2005) inherited the estate. The house was commandeered for use as a hospital during the Second World War and the gardens and estate suffered much damage and neglect. Like her father, Miriam was deeply involved in conservation, but her approach to gardening was also very different, showing a preference for wildness over formality that transformed the Edwardian garden at Ashton Wold. Her advocacy of wildflowers became highly influential in the gardening world. She became an international flea expert in her own right, was a fellow of the Royal Society, was awarded eight honorary degrees and was appointed DBE for her services to the study of natural history.