Site of mid 19th century house, The Plantation, Mill Road (EHER 47366)

Located in an area of historic dispersed settlement to the east of the village of Stock, The Plantation is a multi-phase building, the earliest element of which appears to be a villa of mid 19th century date.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: December 2009. Listing file. Located in an area of historic dispersed settlement to the east of the village of Stock, The Plantation is a multi-phase building, the earliest element of which appears to be a villa of mid 19th century date. The first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1874 shows an L-shaped building comprising the range at the west end of the house with a small service wing at the north-east corner. The main drive to this small villa led from Furze Lane to the west. By the time of the publication of the second edition OS map of 1896, the property had been extended to the rear (east) and had a porch added to the façade. Outbuildings had been constructed to the south-east. By 1922, the building was known as The Plantation and had been extended greatly to the east and south. It is said to have been used as a night-club, but the interior lay-out suggests 20th century use as a hotel or similar institution. More recently the previous owner, an apple-farmer, vertically sub-divided the property, living in the service wing, leaving the former hotel part of the building vacant. It is said that The Plantation was the first organic apple farm in the country. The early and later 20th century reworking of the building is evident on all elevations. The north elevation appears to be entirely 20th century in construction; the late 19th century porch from the façade has been attached near to the north-west corner. In addition to the extensions on the south elevation, a variety of window styles and openings are apparent. The interior of the mid 19th century range has been subsumed into the hotel. Fixtures and fittings of the 20th century remain, although some fireplaces have been removed. A mid 19th century small country house, extended and remodelled in the early 20th century. The house has two-storeys to the polite range at the west and has two-storeys and an attic to the service wing at the east. It is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond and has slate-covered hipped roofs and a number of single and paired chimney stacks. The façade (west) comprises an early 20th century brick porch at ground-floor with a central 'false' window above at first-floor; two six-over-six sash windows have segmented brick arches and are mid 19th century in date. The south elevation has a number of projecting extensions of early and later 20th century date. Various fenestration styles are evident including late 20th century casement openings with straight heads, early 20th century one-over-one sash windows and uPVC replacements. The north elevation comprises two wings flanking a taller central range. The recessed early 20th century entrance is near to the north-west corner of the north elevation, covered by the re-positioned late 19th century flat porch with Tuscan columns. All window openings have shallow arched brick heads; the boarded ground-floor windows are generally timber casements, with those windows on the first and attic floors being 20th century sash windows. Near to the north-east corner is the service entrance in a slightly projecting brick porch with pent, slated roof. The part-glazed door has a flat projecting hood on plain, carved brackets. The east elevation has a hipped projection, with an enclosed timber veranda at first-floor, supported on timber columns. The service wing retains the kitchen, larder and food storage layout on the ground-floor. A plain, utilitarian staircase leads to the first-floor and attic where the room layout survives. There are occasional plain cornices and joinery and four panelled doors. Most fireplaces have been damaged, but some simple early 20th century examples remain. The 'polite' range to the west has an entirely 20th century configuration. The earliest mid 19th century build has no fixtures or fittings remaining; at ground-floor, the principal rooms have been knocked through in the early 20th century to create a ballroom, with decorative plasterwork panelling and a replica fireplace. To the south, the dining-room has a coffered ceiling and to the rear, a large open hall with arched openings leads to the main staircase; an early 20th century piece with square newel posts and turned balusters. At first-floor, there are individual self-contained bedrooms with no historic fixtures and fittings. There has been considerable remodelling where the mid 19th century house has been integrated into the enlarged building. To the south and east are a number of outbuildings of early and later 20th century date. <1> January 2010. Building survey. A small brick house was built within the site of a former tree plantation in the early Victorian period, probably between 1837 and 1851, which was slightly enlarged between 1873 and 1896. Although of modest size, the house had large grounds and grand pretensions, with a fine Tuscan porched entrance on the south side. In the early 20th century, probably the Edwardian era, the house was extended considerably. To a large extent the new building copied the Regency/early Victorian style of the earlier one, with its multi-pane sash windows and hipped low pitched slate roofs, but more contemporary elements were added such as casement windows and an enclosed wooden veranda at the east end. Presenting different styles of architectural features like the veranda with the Tuscan porch was common in larger houses of the period and seen as ‘eclectic’. However, despite this localised attention to detail, the house itself with its plain aspect has an almost ‘institutional’ feel, more like a late 19th century hospital or workhouse. Internally, the original layout of the house was lost quite soon in its history, but the early 20th century layout survives well and it is easy to identify the domestic and family areas. In fact the service rooms are in general the least affected by the subsequent use as a hotel, and also the family/guest bedrooms upstairs, some of which were quite grand. <1> Of the several outbuildings that occupied the site, the oldest and most interesting is the coach house/stables that contains good surviving features, particularly the groom’s room, and is an important component of the site. Although The Plantation has low architectural interest in itself, the survey has been a useful exercise in recording some early 20th century features and interiors and in understanding the development of the house and the site in general. <2>