Description

ALDBURY STOCKS ROAD SP 91 SE (West side) 5/24 Stocks House 21.5.73 GV II

Country house, now a country club. 1773 rebuilt on new site for Arnold Duncombe, enlarged in late C18 to double depth with 2 rear (N) wings, late C19 3-storeys NW service wing and other alterations in early C20 for Mrs Humphrey Ward the novelist (family occupied house 1892-1922). A girl's school up to 1972. Stuccoed brick with moulded architectural features and steep hipped tiled roofs with parapets. Originally facing S, the plan is the principal evidence for the development of the house. Phase 1 had 2 large S rooms flanking an entrance hall leading to a rear stair hall, with a 3rd room (?library) on its W side with a N projecting chimney. Phase 2 added a small room on N of library. Phase 3 added a room set back at the E end (now the entrance lobby approached from E). Phase 4 added a second rear wing on E, and Phase 5 added a new dining room and billiard room for the Humphrey Wards with bay window to drawing room and 3 storeys NW wing. The old front porch was then removed and the free-standing staircase is of the early C20. 2 storeys and attics, with 6 windows and 3 dormers to each main front. Stringcourse, cornice and parapets. Sash windows with 6/6 panes. Ivy covered NE block with 2 similar sash windows on each of 3 floors. Each front has a projecting central feature, one with a bay window with 3 windows to each floor, and on S a tripartite window with pediment over and a bow window below. Sir Walter Scott is said to have stayed at the house and to have based the name Ivanhoe on the nearby village of Ivinghoe. Frequent visitors to Mrs Humphrey Ward were her relations of the Trevelyan, Arnold and Huxley families. (RCHM Typescript: Pevsner (1977) 65: Davis (1980) No 3).

Listing NGR: SP9623013354

External Links

• Stocks House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7618187

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)