Lawnfield House

About the property

Historic interest
The property dates from the late 19th century and was the family home of local gentry. The resident owner, Albert F Frampton was listed in the 1899 edition of Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, Bucks & Oxon, and the house is identified on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1897 and 1900 (copies provided). The property was located on the site of a coach house used as a stop for the Royal Mail horse-driven coach service from London to Bath. It retains both stables and a coach house outbuilding. In the early 20th century, the house was acquired by Philip Limbrach Townsend, a local dignitary whose grand gravestone, adorned with a large statue of an angel, lies in the nearby All Saints Cemetery. After the death of Mr Townsend and his wife Louisa, the property passed to the P L Townsend Dec'd Trust, and it remained occupied by beneficiaries of the trust until 2022. Descendants John and Celia, who rented the property for 47 years from the trustees, and took great care in maintaining its original features, departed in 2022 upon the sale to the current owners.

Selectivity
Lawnfield is marked by its rarity, degree of survival and quality of design, materials and craftsmanship. At one time Maidenhead had multiple examples of large Victorian residences with ornate interiors, landscaped gardens and outbuildings. Over time, these have been demolished, developed, split into flats, businesses or multiple smaller houses. A survey by local residents has concluded that Lawnfield is the only remaining fully in-tact property of its type in the town of Maidenhead. Aesthetic judgment: The house is situated on a beautiful plot with gardens featuring multiple types of tree and forming home to a range of fauna. Most if not all of the original features of the property have been retained. Below are some of the details of these.

External Features
The property is an example of an elegant double-fronted late Victorian villa and unlike any other surviving property in the local area. It has many features which are distinct but typical of its time. The external property has many characteristics popularised by architects in the 1900s but based upon late 17th century houses. The property has white painted Dutch gables, red brick and white dressing and painted windows. At the front of the property, on the apex of the gable roof and on the sides are carved white painted wooden finials and there are ornate white painted barge boards. The original window at the front of the property on the first floor is a notable feature and comprises a round headed panelled window on top of a bay window. There are other original windows at the front of the property. These bay windows feature an upper pane which is divided into nine parts and a lower pane divided into two parts. These are also repeated on the sloping roof in the middle of the property above the front door and ground floor windows. A first-tier tribunal (Property Chamber) decision relating to the house in 2020 noted the property's "ornate chimneys", prominent features which are typical of the property's time. The house features two large brick chimney stacks (each with two pots). They are distinctive due to their unusual shape, each featuring six ornate protrusions. (There are other chimney stacks of more conventional design on other parts of the house.) The roof of the property has decorative ridge tiles. The front door is deeply recessed with red brick sides. In addition to the white painted cornice above (and above to either side) of the front door, there are white painted wooden columns either side of the front door, with carved wooden banisters and balusters either side.

Internal Features
The entrance hall has many hallmarks of a late Victorian property including intricate cornice and coving, picture rails and skirting boards. Before the staircase, there is a decorative wooden archway which mirrors the structure around the front door of the property. Many rooms in the house feature ornate original Victorian and Edwardian fireplaces, one of which stands out for its detailed stone design with stone floral stylising and stone hearth unusual for a villa of this nature. The rooms of the house feature original decorative ceiling mouldings. There is original wooden panelling on the ceiling of the main drawing room (where the stone fireplace can be found). In addition, in that room there can be found original cornice and coving, picture rails and skirting boards.

Subsidiary features
A deep Victorian well is situated between the principal house and the stables. Pre-dating the house, it is understood that it was used for providing fresh water to horses, coach drivers and guards stopping at the site on their journeys between Bath and London. (The house is situated aside the Bath Road.) Regional distinctiveness: Lawnfield is a pristine example of the local East Berkshire style of late Victorian detached villa. Very few examples remain in-tact as a unitary residence with original features.

Need for protection
It appears that there are very few residences similar in nature to Lawnfield which are listed. This is understood to be because the lists of the 1970s and 1980s tended to omit such houses due to a lack of appreciation of the detail of the late Victorian semi-urban architectural features and a perception that, at the time, that they were insufficiently scarce. However, in the subsequent decades, almost all of the specimens of houses of the nature of Lawnfield were demolished, redeveloped or radically altered. It is now urgent that remaining specimens may be protected from a similar fate. Development pressures: Lawnfield represents neither a grand country house nor an urban building. Its uniqueness lies partly in its relative grandeur in the context of a country town and its location within close walking distance to the town centre. It is this location, and the scale of its plot (a little over one acre), which puts it great risk of development. There is, in fact, an immediate and declared threat to the site, involving complete demolition.

Threat
The new owners have submitted a planning application which contemplates the complete demolition of the principal house and all outbuildings and the construction of a large replacement building and car parking.