Letter from English Heritage in response to application for listing
of Kings Mead School and Chapel |
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8th February 2002 Dear Mrs Hubbard PLANNING (LISTED BUILDINGS AND
CONSERVATION AREAS) ACT 1990 I refer to your letter of 22 August 2001 in which you asked the Secretary of State to consider the above buildings for inclusion in the statutory list. English Heritage, the Secretary of State's statutory advisers on the historic environment, has assessed the above buildings and has advised that they have been too altered to merit tiding. St Mary's Nursing Home and Chapel was originally Kingsmead Preparatory School and the school buildings were built c1914 but the chapel dates from 1926. The Prep School closed in the Late 1960s, the buildings became a residential home until 1983 when they became a nursing home until December 2001. English Heritage has commented that the main school buildings comprise three Linked buildings in a Vernacular Revival style, architect not known. They are of two storeys and attics pebbledashed with two brick gables to the south east, hipped tiled roofs with tall brick chimneystacks and some mullioned and transomed windows with Leaded Lights, some to hall and dining room with stained glass shields, others sashes with glazing bars. The north eastern range is symmetrical of five bays with central full-height bay mullioned and transomed window and two partially projecting external chimneystacks and full-height bay to the side elevation. The exterior of this wing has been altered by the addition of a targe later C20 flat-roofed extension to the right and a Left side garage extension. The south eastern range is also symmetrical with end brick gables with first floor mullioned and transomed casements and ground floor canted bays, in between pebbledashed with double sashes to first floor and hipped porch. Dormers have lead cheeks but almost all dormers have late C20 Easement windows. Large flat roofed Late C20 extensions have been added to the south west and a massive flat roofed extension to the Dining Room to the north west. A flat-roofed tower to the rear is the later lift shaft of the Nursing Home. The north west range included the main hall but the roundheaded arches on the ground floor were subsequently filled-in. Internally the former Headmaster's Study retains a c1914 painted brick fireplace, oak panelling (some of it linenfold) and a round-headed entrance into the adjoining Library. This Large room has two brick columned fireplaces, a built-in window seat, mutule frieze and pilasters surrounding bookshelves, linenfold panelling and some panels including a chicken in a pot. Some features appear to be reused C17 fragments from other buildings. The hall (shown with a billiard table in an old school prospectus) has early C20 oak panelling, early C20 stone fireplace with two shields and plastered overmantel with signs of the zodiac The windows have some stained glass roundels. The Dining Room was extended and has a mid C20 oak fireplace and two octagonal columns. Two small and plain well staircases survive, one entirely painted white, the other with stick balustrading only painted. A main staircase was modified when a Lift was inserted and the main hall partitioned off into smaller rooms with a false ceiling The first floor has a sitting room with mid C20 oak fireplace. The roof space of the north western range has a simple roof with collar beams and was originally used for storing trunks. Corridors have been altered with some late C20 doors, ramps and stairlifts. The former Preparatory School buildings of 1914 are a series of three pebbledashed buildings Later linked together with many later C20 flat-roofed extensions and have blocked arches to the former Assembly Hall and altered dormers. They are in Vernacular Revival style but unlikely to be the work of a major architect. Internally two rooms retain dark oak fittings including some reused C17 fragments, another room has a stone early C20 fireplace, plastered overmantel and Light oak panelling of the period and two further rooms have unremarkable mid C20 Light oak fireplaces. There are two plain well staircases and the main staircase was altered when the lift was inserted. These circa 1914 purpose-built Prep School buildings would originally have been of marginal architectural quality and have been too altered externally to be recommended for Listing and as the best internal features have been brought into the building, the other fittings are of mediocre quality, there have been many internal alterations for the Later nursing home use and as a result these buildings do not meet the listing criteria. Attached to the north east is the former school chapel which has an interesting history as a C17 barn at Ripe, several miles away, was pulled down and rebuilt by the headmaster and boys with the help of the builders Pettits in 1926 and dedicated on 12 March 1927. Internally the three main trusses are C17 with jowled posts and curved braces. Most of the rafters are original timbers but there is an inserted ridgepiece and the rafters do not appear to have wooden pegs. If the barn was originally aisled the aisles now appear to be at a different angle and some of the aisle rafters are C20, The aisle windows are early C20 stone mullioned windows. The exterior walls of the church have plinths of reused bricks and some tiles and are rendered above with some applied timbers, some reused but not pegged in. To the extreme north east is a square tower mainly of reused C17 brickwork with stone quoins and a triple pointed east window. The north east aisle wall is of late C20 brickwork. The interior of the chapel contains memorial plaques to 43 old boys' fell in the Second World War and seven others with school connexions. Some furnishings were brought in, including aisle marble paving from Newsell's Park Royston, a C14 font brought from a disused hermit's cave from the same place and doorstep and keystone from Pitt House Seaford. The former Kingsmead School Chapel is not an archaeological re-creation of the C17 Ripe barn as many of the timbers are not pegged in, there are some C20 timbers, the aisle roofs are altered and the tower is built out of reclaimed brick and stone which may not have come from Rips and if it did was not in the form of a tower. Fixtures and furnishings come from a number of sources. For these reasons it does not meet the Listing criteria as a C17 barn re-erected on a different site. Nor does it qualify for Listing as a 1920s church. In the grounds are three further structures. An early C20 garden building in the south western comer built of some reused materials would only have been of interest if the main buildings were listable. A C20 garden seat concealed in a structure like a dovecote is definitely not listable and this aplies to some C20 weatherboarded building built to a pre-existing wall. Having carefully considered all the evidence, the Secretary of State has decided to accept English Heritage's advice and will not, therefore, be adding the buildings to the statutory list. However, I should add that the Secretary of State is always prepared to reconsider a decision not to List, if new evidence comes to light to suggest that the buildings possess sufficient architectural or historic interest. I am sorry to have to send you a disappointing reply. Yours sincerely Maria Vlahakis Listing and Archaeology Branch |
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