Building Name

Innisdoon 1 Crow Hill Drive Mansfield Nottinghamshire

Date
1904 - 1905
Street
Crow Hill Drive
District/Town
Mansfield
County/Country
Nottinghamshire, England
Partnership
Client
Walter Barringer of Mansfield mustard manufacturer
Work
New Build
Listed
Grade II*

"Innisdoon" is more unusual and interesting in this respect than the other two. Its planning will possibly strike the reader at first glance as somewhat complicated and exceptional, if not strained.   he circumstances which have led to this are as follows: Our client was already living in the house shown and we had recently laid out for him the grounds of this house and were designing some additions to be made to the house itself, when the meadows to the south came into his possession. He then decided to build upon it a new house for himself if he could do so without abandoning the recently laid out gardens, and if he could make use of the drive up to the existing house as the approach to the proposed new one. This latter stipulation, and the fact that a very fine tree such as one would not dream of cut- ting down stood where one would naturally have placed the house, made a very special form of plan inevitable. Otherwise a makeshift effect would have resulted. Not only had we to avoid cutting down the tree, but, standing as it did to the southwest of where the house must stand, space enough had to be contrived between it and the house to prevent its shading the latter. On the northwest we were also tied by the position of the existing drive which was to be used as the approach. Further, there could be no doubt but that the right thing to do was to swing the garden front of the house more toward south than it would be if fixed parallel to the field boundaries, in order that more sun might enter the rooms. So everything pointed to a plan broadly triangular in form, making it possible to have the main en- trance at a point from which no long passage-like approach to the various rooms would be necessary, thus saving the pleasantness of the southwest front which inevitably would have been destroyed had the drive been brought round to it and the main entrance placed there. The size of the scullery, relative to that of the kitchen, is a point in the plan many will comment upon. I believe that having the scullery almost as large as the kitchen is proving to be a very convenient arrangement. There is a range in each, but most of the cooking is done on the one in the scullery, so the kitchen is always kept tidy, pleasant and comfortable. [page655]

Reference    The Craftsman  Volume XVIII September 1910  pp647-655. Parker, Barry Modern country homes in England: number six,  
Illustration    main or southwest view; stable yard; hall ;
Illustration    Innisdoon: fireplace corner of the living room. ,
Illustration    Innisdoon Floor plan; Second floor plan, page 654