Summary

Two semi-detached houses, designed by Rex Gardner in 1928 for Leonard Elmhirst, who oversaw their design.

Description

Two semi-detached houses, designed by Rex Gardner in 1928 for Leonard Elmhirst, who oversaw their design.

MATERIALS: brick construction faced in cement render with red sandstone quoins and concrete window lintels and jambs; elm weatherboarding and slate hanging to the first floor; timber-framed roofs laid with Delabole slate (reclaimed, according to the specification), cast-concrete stacks. Internal joinery in oak and elm, with a deal staircase. Hand-wrought door hinges and window latches.

PLAN: each semi-detached house has a rectangular elongated plan, mirrored across each pair.

EXTERIOR: numbers 5 and 6 face north-west into the bend in Park Road, and numbers 7 and 8 face north-east onto Park Road.

The houses are designed in an eclectic Arts & Crafts style over two storeys. Their hipped roofs sweep down over the east and west elevations to create a catslide over the end bays. Each pair has an axial stack, and a stack on the rear roof slope; the stacks are rendered and have terracotta pots. The front elevations of the houses are mirrored on the central axis. The ground-floor walls are faced in textured cement render with a concrete corrugated stringcourse below elm weatherboarding to the first floor; the top section of the end bays is slate-hung. A red sandstone quoin is randomly placed on the corners of the houses.

The following describes number 6 and can be mirrored for number 5 and replicated for numbers 7 and 8, with differences noted. Number 6 comprises three bays with a central projecting bay: the outer (east) slope of its hipped roof is brought down below eaves level, and the front door is set-back below the first floor, creating a covered entrance with a hand-hewn curved oak bracket to the right and a single casement window to the left. Each return has a small casement on the ground floor, and there is a large window on the first floor with side casements and a central top-hung light, with an offset casement window to its left (lighting the stair). The left-hand bay has a top-hung and casement window to the first floor, and a row of three top-hung casements on the ground floor. The right-hand bay has a window on both levels as to the first floor of the central bay.

On the rear elevation there is no slate hanging, the stringcourse extends across the central projecting bay, and the ground floor has a smooth render. The overhang beneath the weatherboarding is also slightly deeper, as are the eaves. Number 8 has a flat-roofed dormer window on the rear roof slope, and numbers 6 and 8 have a rooflight on the front roof slope, both added in the later C20.

The end (east) elevation is single-storey, the roof sweeping down with stone corbels to the eaves, below which is a central oak door with a rectangular-leaded window. A dormer window on the left of the roof slope has a hipped roof, slate-hung cheeks, and paired casements; two rooflights to its right have been removed. At numbers 5 and 8 the external door is on the rear elevation with a single casement window to its left. Number 7 has a window instead of a door, with a single window beneath the eaves on the west elevation; these are later C20 alterations.

Windows on the front elevation are steel-framed with rectangular-leaded glazing and have scalloped lead cill flashings, and slate cills on the ground floor. Windows to the rear are later-C20 double-glazed softwood replacements, including an external door flanked by windows to the inner bay (replacing French doors).

INTERIOR: as above this description of number 6 can be mirrored and replicated across the other houses, with differences noted.

The house is entered into a hallway through a framed and panelled oak door; the other three houses have a nine-pane rectangular-leaded window to the upper part. On the east side of the hallway through a half-archway is a WC, and to the south-east is the kitchen with a small porch beyond. The kitchen layout has generally been altered across all four houses including the removal of partitions to the larder; the fuel-storage cupboards within the porches have also been altered. At number 7 the partitions to and within the end porch have been removed to enlarge the kitchen, although the larder with its shelving survives in its historic position, as it does in number 8. Number 8 also retains its 1920s ‘cook and heat’ Aga. To the west of the hallway is an open-plan sitting room (formerly a dining-sitting room) with substantial oak ceiling beams. The former dining room (south; also accessible from the hallway) has an oak window seat below the south window with folding doors to storage below (the only example across the four houses). All four houses have a fireplace in the dining room and sitting room. In the latter it is on the party-wall and those to number 5, 7 and 8 have a tall roll-moulded stone surround and riveted copper hood. The fireplace at number 6 has been altered but retains the hood. The dining room fireplace backs onto the kitchen wall and has a scaled-down version of the moulded-stone-surround; examples survive at numbers 7 and 8. Hearths are semi-circular concrete with a wrought-iron kerb, and overmantels are oak on brackets. Folding partitions between the dining and sitting rooms have been removed in all four houses, although their ironmongery to the ceiling beams remain.

A timber winder staircase rises at the front of the house from the hallway; it has three curtail-style steps and deal nosings. Above the turn in the stair is a substantial oak beam in the wall below the window which forms a corner shelf. On the first floor are four bedrooms arranged off a spine corridor. To the west is the main bedroom, which has a fireplace on the west wall with a shallowly-recessed brick surround and hearth as described; at numbers 7 and 8 the fireplace has a moulded surround, and the fireplace has been infilled at number 5. To its right is a fitted cupboard with a further cupboard with paired doors above. The second bedroom, to the south, has fitted shelves and a high-level shelf on brackets on the east wall; the fireplace below has been infilled in number 5, and at number 7 the moulded surround survives. The third bedroom is to the south-east and retains a boarded door to the void above the end porch with the dormer window to the right; this is the only dormer window in this position. The fourth bedroom retains a fitted cupboard. Except at number 5, some of the bedrooms have a wash-basin, as in the original specification. The bathroom is on the north side and retains no features of note; that to numbers 5 and 8 has been extended into the void above the end porch, and at number 7 there is a small additional bedroom alongside an extended bathroom.

The attic spaces at numbers 6, 7 and 8 were converted in the later C20; the original oak loft ladders are in situ at numbers 6 and 7, and number 8 has an inserted timber spiral staircase.

Internal doors have wrought-iron latches to fitted cupboards, with wrought-iron strap hinges and brass knob-handles to the principal rooms; all doors are plank and ledge (some are later C20 replacements to the same design). Architraves have a simple roll moulding. Windows to the front retain their bronze catches and furniture; they have later-C20 secondary glazing. Chimney breasts are painted brick; walls are plastered and painted; and floors are of elm boards, polished or painted (and mainly uncarpeted) throughout.

History

At the centre of the Dartington Hall Estate are the surviving parts of the great C14 medieval house (listed Grade I, wider area scheduled), which was almost derelict by the time it was purchased by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst in 1925 from the Champernowne family, who had owned the estate since 1559. The Elmhirsts set about using their substantial wealth to renovate Dartington Hall, beginning The Dartington Experiment, an ambitious programme of rural regeneration based on modern methods of agriculture and forestry, progressive education, arts and literature. Under their patronage, Dartington became a magnet for émigré artists, craftspeople, thinkers, musicians, dancers and actors during the interwar period, and it developed into a vibrant cultural community and a centre of innovation and influence. The couple made Dartington their home for the rest of their lives.

Living accommodation on the Dartington estate before 1925 was limited to three lodges, Park Lane Cottages, the existing farmsteads and their houses, and the hall itself. The Elmhirst’s pioneering venture resulted in the need for new housing, particularly for those employed at the new farms and Dartington Hall School, which was founded in 1926 and moved to a new building at Foxhole in 1932. Between 1926 and 1927 two pairs of semi-detached houses were built on the east side of Park Lane. An extension was then added to the Park Lane road, providing future access to Aller Park school (completed 1931) and three new boarding houses designed by William Lescaze (1933-35), but also providing a location for two further pairs of semi-detached houses. Park Lane was subsequently renamed Park Road.

Plans for the houses, numbers 5-6 and 7-8 Park Road, were drawn up in early 1928 by Rex Gardner (1891-1970), the estate’s first architect and the head of the craft workshop. Each pair was designed as a mirror-image and therefore essentially identical; however, Gardner’s specifications reveal that features such as fitted shelving in the dining room and wash-basins in all the bedrooms were only to be included if required, and that fireplaces were to be designed to the client’s wishes. Each house was designed with a dining room and sitting room, divided by folding partitions; a large hallway with cupboards, a WC and staircase; a pantry and kitchen fitted with a ‘cook and heat’ (the first AGA Rangemaster); and an end porch with storage for wood and coal and a washing boiler. Upstairs were four bedrooms (two with a fireplace, two with a basin) arranged around a central corridor; a bathroom with WC and a bath; and, above the end porch, a linen cupboard and 100-gallon water tank. Each pair had other slight differences, including the location of the door into the end porch. The external appearance of the houses was unlike anything from the local vernacular with a mix of textured cement render, elm weatherboarding and Cornish slate-hanging; red limestone quoins were the only local reference. Gardner’s skill as a furniture maker was utilised throughout the interior and for the front porch brackets; it is likely that these were made by the estate craftsmen to Gardner’s designs.

Each house had a substantial rear garden, overlooking the fields to the south and east, and was set back from the road with a small front garden. Each pair was screened from each other at the front, but each house in the pair had a communal approach to their front porches.

It has been suggested that the houses on Park Road were built specifically for the teaching staff at the newly established school; the 1939 Register records a retired music teacher and a teacher of gymnastics and French living on Park Road, but it is unclear which buildings this relates to.

Reasons for Listing

Numbers 5-6 and 7-8 Park Road, Dartington, Devon are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
 
Architectural interest:
* as architecturally distinctive pairs of houses designed by the Dartington estate architect Rex Gardner which are well detailed and largely retain their plan and fabric throughout;
* for the survival of internal features including timber winder staircases, fireplaces with copper hoods, plank and ledge doors with wrought-iron furniture, and bronze window furniture;
* for the combination of traditional and non-traditional materials in an Arts and Crafts idiom.
 
Historic interest:
* as the first housing built on the Dartington Hall estate as part of Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst’s ‘Dartington Experiment’ – a pioneering venture in C20 England of estate investment and development based on agricultural reform and cultural innovation.
 
Group value:
* very strong group value with the neighbouring slightl earlier pairs of houses at 1-2 and 3-4 Park Road, illustrating the stylistic diversity of estate worker’s housing.

Recommended Books

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  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Old House Care and Repair
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
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  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)