Graced and favoured by the master himself
Chris Webb
Edwin Lutyens took a shine to Winkworth Farm that resonates to this day,
says Chris Webb
Never one given to dishing out high praise too liberally, the architectural
chronicler Nikolaus Pevsner must have been especially smitten when he came
across Winkworth Farm and its "unbelievably picturesque quad". Yet the
charms of this quirky, timber-framed house in the heart of the Surrey hills
extend well beyond its good looks to other claims to fame.
The house's lived-in face, with its gingerbread appeal, owes much to its
age, as it was built between 1580 and 1600 for a local yeoman farmer at
Hascombe, south of Godalming. It was hardly the height of fashion in its
day, as timberframed, Elizabethan construction was on its way out, making
way for new-fangled Dutch brick buildings.
But the property also owes some of its charm to Sir Edwin Lutyens, who, in
1895, remodelled the mid-18th century barn on the right of the property,
joining it to the house, and lengthening it to make a hallway. His hand can
be seen in the corner windows, which were favoured by him, in tiles set
end-on into walls, and in some Bargate stone window surrounds. His closest
pupil, JDColeridge, designed a rear extension in 1908.
Sir Edwin's friend, Gertrude Jekyll, planted part of Winkworth's garden, and
a garden wall and terrace are attributed to her. She was 46 when she met the
20-year-old Lutyens in 1889, and they had such a perfect understanding that
they collaborated on many projects. She had taken up photography in the
1880s, and took before-and-after photographs of Lutyens's work at Winkworth.
The architect FW Troup altered her garden in 1914, adding spiral steps,
while making some changes to the house's interior.
In 1918, the house was bought by Dr Wilfred Fox, a leading dermatologist,
based at St George's Hospital, who, during his 40 years at Winkworth,
acquired the adjoining Thorncombe Estate. In 1938, he began planting an
arboretum in the then wild Thorncombe Valley, near the house. He packed it
with 1,000 species of shrubs and trees that give impressive spring displays
and blazing autumn shows, which are reflected in two lakes at the valley
bottom. In 1952, he gave the arboretum to the National Trust, and it is
still open to the public.
When, in 1962, the wildlife artist and campaigner David Shepherd bought the
farmhouse from the late Dr Fox's estate, he said it was covered in "cheap
panelling". Even so, he lived there for 39 years, moulding it to his taste.
He kept a gipsy caravan in the garden, and, next door to the kitchen,
created an early-Victorian shop front with a bow window and a wooden,
panelled door with a bell that tings
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when a "customer" enters. Over this is
a sign, "Winkworth and Daughters 1963", a reference to his four daughters.
It even has an old-fashioned delivery bike, with a basket.
Shepherd later bought an old oak barn that had stood at Parkhurst Farm,
Sussex, until it was blown down in the great 1987 storm, and re-erected it
to use as his studio. He joined it to the house by an "underground tunnel" -
he had a deep trench dug, walled and roofed. That tunnel, which is accessed
from the cellar, was his "commute" to work, where he produced his famous paintings of steam
trains, elephants and other African wildlife.
Shepherd also acquired a remarkable cellar door from Falmouth jail. Behind
it was imprisoned the last Englishman to be accused of cannibalism after he
was shipwrecked in 1884 with another man and a boy. The starving men ate the
boy, but gained such sympathy that they were given just six months in
prison. Shepherd was so attached to the door that he took it with him when
he moved seven years ago.
The property's new owner was Simon Culmer, a former director of Cisco
Systems. "I fell in love with the house and garden at first sight," he
recalls. "All over the house you see the builder's mark, a line with a
crescent through it, the timbers are numbered with Roman numerals that
showed where they fitted. I commissioned a history of it which revealed a
suggestion that the farmhouse was stormed by Cromwell's troops during the
Civil War. The quad was once a straw yard, formed by the house and two
barns.
Mr Culmer has recently remarried and he and his wife, Clare, want to move to
Hampshire, near where he now works, so Winkworth Farm is for sale.
The Grade II-listed property fronts on to a B road, and comes with 14.5
acres, including a knot garden, a rose garden, a walled vegetable garden, a
large lake, a paddock and manege, and a stable yard containing five loose
boxes.
Inside are eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, a beamed entrance hall, two
studies, a games room, sitting room, a drawing room and a dining room, each
with inglenook fireplaces, a kitchen/ breakfast room, boot and utility
rooms, a games room and a billiard room with a minstrels gallery. On the
second floor is a contemporary living room.
Margaret Richardson, a trustee of the Lutyens Trust, says: "I know the
house, it's a bit of a dog's dinner, but is absolutely lovely. In the early
1890s Lutyens was finding himself. Then he went through an antiquarian
phase. It was a lovely old building - he loved working with buildings like
that."
Winkworth Farm is for sale with (Savills: 01483 796820) at £3.5 million
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