Cruchfield Manor Hawthorn Hill Heritage Statement
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Cruchfield Manor Hawthorn Hill Heritage Statement December 2020 Built Heritage Consultancy Cruchfield Manor Hawthorn Hill Heritage Statement December 2020 Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Understanding 2 3.0 Significance 52 4.0 Assessment of the Proposals 61 5.0 Conclusion 67 6.0 Sources 68 Appendix A: List Description 70 Appendix B: Planning Policy Context 71 © Built Heritage Consultancy 2020 This report is for the sole use of the person/organisation to whom it is addressed. It may not be used or referred to in whole or in part by anyone else without the express agreement of the Built Heritage Consultancy. The Built Heritage Consultancy does not accept liability for any loss or damage arising from any unauthorised use of this report. Ordnance Survey mapping in this report is reproduced under licence no. 0100058173 1.0 Introduction Cruchfield Manor, historically known as Cruchfield House, is situated in the hamlet of Hawthorn Hill, Berkshire, around 5km to the north east of Bracknell. The house was statutorily listed at Grade II in April 1972 (list entry no. 1312899). The list description (reproduced as Appendix A) dates the house to the 18th century. Numerous alterations were made to it in the 19th and 20th centuries. Just to the north east of the house is a ‘cottage’, parts of which appear to date from the 19th century. Now detached, the ‘cottage’ was historically contiguous with the house. Within the curtilage of the listed building is a 19th century stable block that includes two barns. Around 60m to the west of the house is an open-air swimming pool and pool house constructed in c.1961. The estate’s owners, Mr and Mrs Brunander, wish to make a number of alterations to the house. The purpose of this report is to consider the impact of the proposed works on the building’s significance. Paragraph 189 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF, 2019) requires applicants to: describe the significance of any heritage assets affected, including any contribution made by their setting. The level of detail should be proportionate to the assets’ importance and no more than is sufficient to understand the potential impact of the proposal on their significance. The report meets these requirements at an appropriate level of detail. It has been prepared by Anthony Hoyte BA(Hons) MA(RCA) MSc IHBC and James Weeks MA, and is based on research and a Site visit made in October 2018. Archaeological considerations are beyond the scope of the report. Cruchfield Manor, Hawthorn Hill: Heritage Statement 1 2.0 Understanding 2.1 Context Cruchfield Manor, historically known as Cruchfield House, is situated in the hamlet of Hawthorn Hill, Berkshire, around 5km to the north east of Bracknell. The house lies just within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, but the borough boundary runs immediately to the south, and the frontage to the road (the A330) is within Bracknell Forest. 2.2 Early history Ditchfield & Page (1923) relate that the manor of Cruchfield (variously known as Cruchesfeld, Crychfeld, Cruchefelde, Crussefeld, Crouchefeld and Crochefeld) was originally a dairy farm belonging to the royal manor of Bray. It had been established, probably in the reign of Henry I (1100-1135), by Alan de Nuvill, who subsequently gave it to Geoffrey de Baggesite, whose grandson Henry de Baggesite was in possession of it between 1186 and 1217. Henry was succeeded before 1240 by his son Geoffrey, who, in about 1251, gave his estate in Cruchfield to Henry Lovel, cook to Eleanor of Provence (c.1223-1291), the wife of Henry III. In 1256, Henry III granted Lovel a further 10¼ acres of land in the parish of Bray. Lovel’s descendants, the Lovels of Boveney in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, remained in possession of Cruchfield until 1502, when Agatha Wayte, the eldest daughter of Richard Lovel, sold it to Sir Reynold Bray. He bequeathed it to Edmund Bray, but the latter’s claim was disputed in 1510 by Sir William Sandys (1470-1540), later the 1st Baron Sandys of the Vyne, and his wife Margery, the niece of Sir Reynold Bray. In 1577, the 3rd Baron Sandys sold Cruchfield to William Chapman, apparently a trustee for Robert Chamberlayne, after which it passed to John Hercy, who was in possession of it in 1608. The estate remained in the Hercy family until the late 1880s. Ditchfield & Page (1923) relate that, by 1891, the house belonged to a Mrs Henderson, but note that the manorial rights were by then in abeyance. 2.3 Historical development of the Cruchfield estate 2.3.1 The 18th century estate The list description for the present house dates it to the 18th century. In sales particulars of 1884, it was noted that the house dated from ‘the early part of last century’, whilst 20th century sales particulars describe it as ‘Georgian’ (i.e. from the period 1714-1830). The earliest cartographic evidence we have of Hawthorn Hill is John Rocque’s 1761 map of Berkshire. This shows that there was by this time a single building present on the site of the present house. A single building is also shown on a ‘map of Windsor Forest and its vicinity’ prepared in 1823 by Henry Walter, and revised in 1856. The latter is annotated ‘Crutchfield Farm’. Those parts of the present house that might relate to the house present in the 18th century, and the building’s subsequent development, are discussed in detail at section 2.4 below. 2 Cruchfield Manor, Hawthorn Hill: Heritage Statement Berkshire Record Office ‘A Topographical Map of the County of Berks. By John Rocque, Topographer to His Majesty, 1761’ mapco.net ‘A Map of Windsor Forest and its vicinity 1823 by Henry Walter: New edition revised and corrected 1856’ Cruchfield Manor, Hawthorn Hill: Heritage Statement 3 Both maps show there to have been a lane extending northwards from Hawthorn (or ‘Hawthorne’) Lane to the west of the building – identified on the 1823/56 map as ‘Crutchfield Lane’. This lane had gone by 1840. 2.3.2 The early 19th century estate The earliest documentary evidence we have definitively relating to the ownership and occupation of the present house – known historically as ‘Cruchfield House’– is provided by the Bray tithe map and apportionment of 1840, and the Warfield tithe map and apportionment of 1843. The historic parish boundary runs immediately to the south of the house. Most of the extant buildings lie within the parish of Bray, but the frontage along Hawthorn Lane lies in the parish of Warfield. The Bray tithe records reveal that, in the vicinity of the present house, the ‘House & Pleasure Grounds’ (plot 1565), and the adjoining ‘Stables, Yard & Buildings’ (plot 1566), were then owned and occupied by John Hercy Esq. (1790-1877). The Warfield tithe records reveal that on the southern side of the parish boundary, Hercy owned and occupied ‘Part of Lawn, Yard & Garden’ (plot 42), ‘Homestead & Yard’ (plot 43) and ‘Garden’ (plot 44). Hercy’s landowning in the parish of Bray extended to just under 210 acres, whilst in Warfield he owned upwards of 45 acres in the vicinity of Cruchfield, and more besides. The Bray tithe map of 1840 suggests that the earlier house was much extended in the early 19th century. The house shown on this map is recognisably that present today, albeit there have been subsequent alterations. The map shows the house to have comprised an essentially square building with a central porch to the south, a square bay window projecting northwards from the western end of its northern elevation, and a narrow range extending north-eastwards from the north-east corner. To the east was a small projection, the south- eastern corner of which met the corner of a narrow, apparently detached outbuilding on the line of the present ‘annexe’. The subsequent historical development of the house is discussed in detail at section 2.4 below. The house was approached via a short, U-shaped carriage sweep from Hawthorn Lane via two entrances that are no longer present. This carriage sweep was intersected on its western side by a linear drive extending north-westwards to join the road north towards Touchen End (the present A330). The garden to the north west of the house was enclosed by a curved boundary, which later maps suggest may have taken the form of a ha-ha. To the east of the house, the Bray tithe map shows there to have been a rectangular yard enclosed on its northern and western sides by an ‘L’-shaped building, and bounded by structures to the south and east (plot 1566). The ‘L’-shaped building corresponds with the present stable and barn buildings, albeit there have been subsequent alterations. Further east was a triangular yard with further structures against its north-eastern side. These parts of the Site were approached via the present shared access from Hawthorn Lane. Wrapping around the northern side of these elements was a ‘plantation belt’ (plot 1567). On the southern side of the parish boundary, to the south of the yards, the Warfield tithe map shows a further building, identified as a ‘homestead’ (plot 43), with a long thin range extending to the east. East of this was an enclosed garden (plot 44). 4 Cruchfield Manor, Hawthorn Hill: Heritage Statement The National Archives Bray tithe map, 1840 (Copy of 1933) The National Archives Warfield tithe map, 1843 Cruchfield Manor, Hawthorn Hill: Heritage Statement 5 2.3.3 The later 19th century estate By the time of the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1875-76, the ‘homestead’ to the south of the extant stable and barn buildings had gone.