Patrick Comerford
As I was walking between Buckingham and Maids Moreton a few times this week and last, four houses at the Buckingham end of Moreton Road that are Grade II listed buildings caught my attention: Moriah Cottage, Sandon House and Fernleigh are side-by-side with one another, and, facing them on the opposite side of Moreton Road, is The Cottage at 47 Moreton Road.
The Cottage is on a bend on the road and set back from the street behind a hedge. It is an attractive ‘picture postcard’ blue and white cottage orné dating from the early 19th century.
It is set back from the street behind hedges and railings and remains a unique example in Buckingham of this picturesque style of architecture.
The cottage orné or decorated cottage style dates from a movement of ‘rustic’ stylised cottages in the late 18th and early 19th century, when there was a fashion to discover a more ‘natural’ way of living as opposed to the formality of the baroque and neo-classical architectural styles.
As with the earlier Petit hameau de la Reine at Versaillesin France, these picturesque cottages were popular with aristocratic and gentry families in the early 19th century as places to ‘play at being peasants’ and to entertain guests, and as places for picnics, card games and theatricals.
English Heritage defines the term as ‘a rustic building of picturesque design.’ These cottages often feature well-shaped thatch roofs and ornate timberwork. Many were inspired by Strawberry Hill House – often known simply as Strawberry Hill – the Gothic Revival villa in Twickenham built by Horace Walpole (1717-1797) in 1749-1776.
Some cottages in this style in Ireland include the Swiss Cottage in Cahir, Co Tipperary, designed by the Regency architect John Nash (1752-1835) ca 1817 for Richard Butler (1775-1819), 1st Earl of Glengall; Martinstown House, Co Kildare, designed by Decimus Burton (1800-1881) for Augustus Frederick FitzGerald (1791-1874), 3rd Duke of Leinster; and Laurelmere Lodge in Marlay Park, Rathfarnham, designed for the La Touche family and later known as Tamplin’s Cottage – although, to generations of children in south Dublin, it is known as ‘Goldilocks Cottage.’ There are similar cottages at Burrenwood, Co Down, Derrymore, Co Armagh, and Glengarriff, Co Cork.
The Cottage on Moreton Road in Buckingham is a storey and a half in height, is ‘T’-shaped in plan and has a central hipped tiled range with thatched roofs on the small side wings on each side, and with rear ranges, a brick ridge and end stacks. It is built of brick, pebble-dashed and colour washed. The windows are metal casements with arched heads.
The house has a central plank door with a pointed arched head flanked by two-light leaded casement windows with pointed arched heads, central division and glazing bars that evoke Y-tracery. Similar ‘Gothick-style’ leaded casement can been seen in the wing to the left.
The wing to the rear, behind the central unit, has a half-hipped thatch roof and an attic storey, with a pair of two-light leaded casements on the ground floor, pointed-arched heads and a two-light leaded casement in the attic.
The right wing is separate from the rest of the cottage and it was formerly an outbuilding. The right-hand wing has a plank door to the left with a pointed-arched head and a small quartered window to the far right. Undressed timbers are said to be used in the roofs throughout The Cottage.
Across the street from the Cottage, Moriah Cottage is a curious and eye-catching detached house on Moreton Road. It was once the coachman’s house for Sandon House. Moriah Cottage was built in the Tudor style in the early 19th century and was altered in the 20th century. It house stands close to the back edge of the footpath, with its gable end facing onto the street.
But how did Moriah Cottage gets its name?
Moriah Cottage may take its name from the place in the Book of Genesis where Abraham’s binding of Isaac is said to have taken place. Traditionally, the mountain in Genesis is also identified with Mount Moriah in the Book of Chronicles where Solomon’s Temple was built. Both places are identified with the present Temple Mount in Jerusalem.< br />
Moriah Cottage is two storeys high, with a basement, and the front façade of the house is the gable end. The roof is covered in Welsh slate and the wooden bargeboards are ornamental. A prominent element of the elevation facing onto the street is the ground floor drip-moulds to the windows and the central arched doorway.
In front of the 20th century front door is one stone step. The door has a depressed arched head, a rendered surround with incised masonry patterns and a hood mould.
The two-light casement windows on the ground floor and the first floor have similar surrounds, and those on the ground floor have hood moulds. There is a rendered, chamfered plinth with basement windows on either side of door with cambered arched heads.
Beside Moriah Cottage, Sandon House on Moreton Road is set back from the road behind a low brick wall, and it probably dates from the late 18th century. The stone house was re-fronted in red brick in the early 19th century. It is a three-bay, four-storey red brick house in Flemish bond with a slate roof and brick end stacks.
A flight of 11 stone steps leads to up to the central front door at the first-floor level. The steps have iron balustrades with standards bearing vase finials. The six-panel door has a fanlight with intersecting glazing bars, panelled reveals and a round-arched head. Other features and details include a curved, hanging bay window and a 12-pane sash window on the first floor, incised masonry patterns, giant blank arches, blank windows and round-arched and segmental-arched heads with key blocks. The semi-circular headed panels at the second-floor level add to the distinctive appearance of Sandon House.
Beside Sandon House on Moreton Road, Fernleigh is an early 19th century red brick house. The house is three bays wide and two storeys high with a cement rendered basement. Like Sandon House, the principal entrance to Fernleigh is up a flight of steps to a central doorway flanked on either side by sash windows.
As a cluster of buildings close to one another on Moreton Road, these four picturesque houses and cottages make an important contribution to the streetscape and to the Conservation Area in the Buckingham North area of Aylesbury Vale.
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