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Localisation | Latitude: 51.180185 Longitude: -0.58000931 National Grid Reference: SU 99351 43286 Map: Download a full scale map (PDF) |
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Overview | Heritage Category: Park and Garden Grade: II* List Entry Number: 1001174 Date first listed: 01-Jun-1984 |
An example of a late C19 house and garden in the Surrey vernacular style, resulting
from a collaboration between Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
The site of Orchards, then heathy woodland with fields to the north c 1.2km north-east
of Munstead Wood (qv), was purchased in early 1897 by Mr and Mrs (later Sir William
and Lady) Chance, he being a successful QC with a deep-rooted desire to live in the
country in a self-sufficient and gently philanthropic way, and she being a cousin
of Lytton Strachey, a talented sculptress, and a believer in the Arts and Crafts Movement.
The architect Halsey Ricardo had been commissioned to design a house, his brief including
a north light for Julia's studio and a sunny aspect for William's writing room but
his design did not meet with their aproval. Walking to the site from Godalming station,
the Chances saw 'a house [Munstead Wood] nearing completion, and on the top of a ladder
a portly figure giving directions to some workmen. The house was a revelation of unimagined
beauty and charm' (Julia Chance, quoted in Brown 1982). Miss Jekyll (1843-1932) encouraged
them to change architects and employ Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), which they did. During
its three-year gestation, in a workshop set aside for him at Munstead Wood, Lutyens
'used up yards of tracing paper' (Festing 1994). Lutyens' brief was to design a house
like Munstead Wood but larger and a little grander and conditioned by its site, in
the same tradition of Surrey picturesque, the result being, according to Christopher
Husssey, 'a symphony of local materials, conducted by an artist, for artists' (quoted
in Festing 1994).
Miss Jekyll was a strong influence not only on the basic use of the site for its light
and views but also on the layout of the garden. Her first signed full-length article
in Country Life in 1901 was on the building of Orchards. The site remains (1999) in
private ownership.
DESCRIPTION
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Orchards is situated 2km south-east
of Godalming, on Munstead Heath Road which runs from south-west to north-east linking
the settlements of Munstead Heath and Shalford. The c 6ha site comprises formal gardens
around the house, merging into woodland to the west and south, with meadows to the
north-east. The site is enclosed by wire fencing. Miss Jekyll described the setting
thus:
On the sandy soil of the west Surrey hills, where one of their many valley-folds runs
up to the edge of a half-mile wide, well-wooded and sheltered plateau, is this newly
built house. The twenty-six acres of land on which it stands are for the most part
of open forest character, with groups of well grown oaks ... Eastward is an open view
towards Dorking and Leith Hill over a rough field, at whose further end the stone
for the house has been quarried. (CL 1901).
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The site is entered on the west side by a short drive from
Munstead Heath Road, passing the gardener's cottage and a group of garages on the
north side. The drive enters the courtyard under a timber arch to approach the main
entrance in the south-east wing. Immediately to the north of the drive a second arch
leads through the projecting north-east wing to the stable yard.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING Orchards (listed grade I) was designed by Edwin Lutyens for Sir
William and Lady Chance and built 1897-1900, with alterations in 1909 and 1914. It
is a mainly two-storey building on a quadrangle plan with a large inner courtyard,
built of coursed sandstone blocks quarried on the site with tile-on-edge decoration,
some tile-hung gables, plain tiled roofs, and brick chimney stacks. The north wing
was built as Julia Chance's studio and is linked to the main house by a single-storey
arched cloister which forms the west side of the quadrangle. The two-storey projecting
north-east wing was formerly the stables; it has recently (1990s) been converted to
a concert room. A loggia at the south-east corner, accessed from the dining room,
was designed to take advantage of the fine views east over the Thorncombe valley.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS The house is surrounded to the west and south by oak,
beech, holly, and hazel woodland, with an understorey of camellias and rhododendrons
and a ground flora of bluebells. From the entrance drive a gravelled footpath runs
around the west side of the house, passing a rectangular stone sunken area with upright
yews at each corner, probably added in the 1930s. At the south-west corner of the
house a semicircular brick feature, backed by a yew hedge, faces east along the south
terrace. Beyond the sunken garden and terrace the lawns merge into a fringe of rhododendrons
and woodland. The terrace provides a view east over the Dutch Garden to the Thorncombe
valley and the North Downs beyond. At the eastern end of the terrace is the small
loggia courtyard, surfaced in herringbone brickwork and areas of small pieces of Bargate
stone, from which steps lead down to the continuation of the gravel terrace. East
of the loggia courtyard and to the north of the path is the rectangular Dutch Garden
(listed grade II), enclosed by a 2m high yew hedge. The Garden is paved in stone slabs
and areas of herringbone brickwork, the design using semicircles to create steps and
seating areas. At its northern end are alcoves and a water basin (listed grade II),
built of terracotta tiles with Portland stone trimmings and a lion-head water spout
designed by Julia Chance. Within the garden are two rows of large, clipped topiary
yews, and rose beds edged with lavender. Lutyens' design sketches for the Dutch Garden
and the gateway and flanking topiary peacocks (which no longer exist) still survive
(RIBA). To the south of the gravel path is the former shrub garden.
East of the Dutch Garden is a level lawn enclosed by the brick wall of the kitchen
garden to the north, and to the east by a double yew hedge between which a path, edged
to the west by a flower border, runs north through a large stone and tile-on-edge
gateway to the ornamental kitchen garden. East of this path the former croquet lawn
(plan, Weaver 1913), with Lutyens-style garden seats and large terracotta urns, gives
views to the north-east over a low stone wall and a meadow. Further east, hedged enclosures
contain a swimming pool surrounded by palms in pots and ornamental planting and tennis
courts.
At the eastern end of the meadow is the quarry from which the building stone was dug;
this is now fenced and provides a wildlife sanctuary. It was planted by Lady Chance,
guided by Gertrude Jekyll. A mown path through the meadow is part of a circuit around
the site that runs through the indigenous woodland to the west of the house, which
was reduced by the storms of 1987 and 1990, and encompasses another meadow area beyond
the woodland south of the house, where new planting of ornamental trees is underway
(1999).
The planting at Orchards was a collaboration between Miss Jekyll and Lady Chance;
in her article in Country Life (1901), Miss Jekyll comments that Mrs Chance, 'though
not much of a practical gardener before settling at Orchards ... has at once apprehended
the value of the best ways of gardening'.
KITCHEN GARDEN The c 0.25ha kitchen garden lies c 20m north-east of the house, beyond
a 2m high beech hedge, and north of the Dutch Garden. The garden is enclosed by ornamental
brick walls (listed grade II) with tile coping and is entered from the south through
a large stone gateway. The garden is subdivided into quarters by hoggin paths edged
by 3m wide herbaceous borders containing posts and chains for lines of climbing and
rambler roses. At the centre of the garden is a stone-edged dipping well, also surrounded
by roses on chains. Each quarter of the kitchen garden is now mown lawn, in the centre
of which is a large terracotta pot holding a clipped standard evergreen tree. Originally
the garden produced fruit and vegetables for the house, screened by flower beds adjacent
to the paths. On its eastern boundary the garden is enclosed by a 2m high raised walkway,
reached by steps at the north and south ends. The walkway allows views to the east
over an area of the garden now (late C20) used for growing fruit and vegetables, and
where poultry and animals are kept.
North of the kitchen garden is a further enclosed garden, lying east of what was the
head gardener's cottage. Some of the original greenhouses still remain in use on the
north wall (listed grade II), as does the apple store (listed grade II with the kitchen
garden walls) in the south-east corner, which was designed to match the adjoining
garden walls.
REFERENCES
Country Life, 10 (31 August 1901), pp 272-9; 23 (11 April 1908), pp 522-31 L Weaver,
Houses and Gardens by E L Lutyens (1913, repr 1998), pp 23-34 G Jekyll, Garden Ornament
(1918, repr 1994), pp 146, 293, 396-7, 424 F Jekyll, Gertrude Jekyll A Memoir (1935),
pp 160-3 J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), pp 56-8, 163 J Brown, Lutyens
and the Edwardians (1998), pp 32-5 S Festing, Gertrude Jekyll (1994), pp 159-62
Maps OS 6" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1897 3rd edition published 1919 OS 25"
to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1871, published 1878 2nd edition published 1897 3rd
edition published 1916 1936 edition
Archival items Lutyens drawings, RIBA Library Jekyll Notebook No 15 (Godalming Museum)
Description written: June 1999 Register Inspector: BJL Edited: October 2002
This garden or other land is registered under the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by Historic England for its special historic interest.