Summary

Walled tennis court, probably built in the mid-1930s.

Description

Walled tennis court, probably built in the mid-1930s.

MATERIALS: The walls are constructed of red brick and the stair is dressed with sandstone.

PLAN: The court is rectangular on plan, aligned north to south, and the north end resembles a shouldered arch on plan.

DESCRIPTION: The tennis court is located around 30m south-east of Burefield on land that slopes gently south to the River Bure; the walls reduce in height from around 3m at the north end to around 0.5m at the south end. The red brick walls are laid in monk bond (two stretchers and a header), with long panels of brickwork separated by shallow brick buttresses. Above the panels, a tall brick cornice is composed of a course of dentils, four regular courses, a sloped course of bricks laid diagonally in header bond, and coped by a course laid in header bond. At the north end of the court are a pair of red brick piers with segmental-arched brick caps, which open to a York stone paved terrace overlooking the court to the south. To the centre of the paving is a bronze roundel depicting a squirrel with oak leaves and acorns, very similar to that on the east side of the neighbouring machinery shed (dated 1934). The bowed south side of the terrace has a sandstone balustrade, and from the east and west sides of the terrace a bifurcated stair descends to court level with sandstone handrails and steps. To the centre of the south end of the court, a pair of brick piers mark an exit to the south. The surface of the tennis court has been replaced.

History

The tennis court 30m south-west of Burefield is part of the property of Burefield (NHLE 1494727). It dates from the period in the 1930s when the main house was extended and other ancillary service and garden buildings were erected in a picturesque style. Although undated it is no later than 1938 when it was surveyed for the Ordnance Survey map published in 1941. The paved platform above the tennis court features a bronze roundel of a squirrel with acorns and oak leaves; a similar roundel is seen on the east elevation of the neighbouring machinery shed (dated 1934).

For a more detailed history of Burefield see NHLE 1494727.

Reasons for Listing

The tennis court 30m south-west of Burefield is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a substantial but elegant structure, demonstrating quality craftsmanship in its construction;
* for the considered design of the semi-sunken court on a sloping site, and the necessary shelter provided by its boundary walls.

Historic interest:
* as evidence of the evolving social, ecological, sporting and recreational history of the Broads in the late C19 and C20, and the increased demand for a quieter life in the countryside during the C20.

Group value:
* for the historic and functional group it forms with Burefield, a holiday cottage built around 1911 and extended as a family home in the mid-1930s, and its numerous estate buildings including a barn, tractor shed and apple store, moon gate and garden wall, car garage, machinery shed, boat shed 65m south of the house and summerhouse, each listed at Grade II.

Recommended Books

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)