“Woodgarth,” Leycester Road, Knutsford

“WOODGARTH” has great architectural charm and possesses a quiet quality of picturesqueness which is very pleasing. The happiest bit of grouping is the garden front, close to the edge of an old sand-pit containing a tennis lawn and circular pagoda. Internally the general restraint adds to the decorative value of the coloured modelled plaster, tiles and metalwork. (A report of an MSA visit to Knutsford where Bexton Croft was also inspected) [British Architect 14 July 1905. Page 20-21]

RECENT DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE - Our next illustrations are those of a house at Knutsford, of which Mr Percy Worthington, M.A, is the architect. Apropos of this house our Manchester correspondent writes :—" In 'Woodgarth' the architect, aided by the practical artistic appreciation of his client, Mr Wragge, has produced what will rank as one of the beautiful homes of England. Lying off the beaten tract in the heart of a silver birch and pine copse, and approached through a circular-topped oak gateway, the house, being L-shaped, seems like two out-held arms, the main door and vestibule filling the centre angle; on the left the loft, stabling, kitchen and servants' rooms; on the right the hall, dining, study, billiard and overhead bedrooms. The roof, of many-coloured stone slabs, makes a delightful scheme, from which the rain-water heads and down pipes form, practically and artistically, a strap-like part of the exterior decoration in oak, alternately checked in black and white. At the back one empties into a green barrel, forming a unique contrast with the side of the yard arch, the plain upper portion of the wall relieved by the careful arrangement of a sundial above the keystone. From the top of the steps on the left, leading up to the back entrance, a view is obtained of the wild woodland, in harmony with which is the pergola at the lawn end, where, as in the adjacent copse, the feathered songsters can build and rest in peace. The woodwork of the hall (see page128) is dull oak panelled, finished by slight moulding, in line with the door tops, and above a frieze of white plaster ; the ceiling of the same material, relieved by an elliptical mould, intersected in four by excellently modelled cherub heads. The chimneypiece is in harmonious stone, forming a framework for the delicately coloured side - tiles in green, pale rose and orange, and a plain, self-coloured background for the quaintly squared grate. The rugs and carpeting are in keeping with the tile colouring, and the dark oak furniture of old English design selected with much thoughtfulness. A lighter note is struck in the dining and breakfast-room (page 129), with its beamed ceiling, white plaster walls, green casement curtains, and the richly designed beaten brass canopy, the silver grey strip marble border and cream tiles. The furniture, which is made of deep-toned mahogany, and consists only of such pieces as are of use and in unity with the entire surroundings, completes a room of new life and peaceful association. In the study the same quiet restraint is carried out. In the billiard room (see illustration on page 129) comfort and freedom constitute the pervading melody. The walls are oak panelled to the ceiling, and the constructional beams are left bare. A log fire blazes under a wrought-iron canopy, and the flames flicker round the large square green tiles which line the recess and reflect both light and warmth; the hearth itself is of unglazed red brick, set under an archway of grey stone, surmounted by a projecting over-mantel decoration of alcove figures. The uncarpeted oak stairway leads hence along a corridor of white plaster, strapped alternately by the natural finished woodwork, where each unpolished white door and black homely latch admits to the bedrooms, in which the same prevailing dignity, thoughtful furniture and unaffected decoration are in evidence. Throughout the house, in fact, this thoughtfulness of design and excellence of workmanship are everywhere noticeable. It is a home too where the servants are considered human, and as much interest brought to bear upon the decoration and comfort of their sitting and bedrooms as is bestowed upon those of its owners."

"WOODGARTH" at Knutsford, designed by Messrs Worthington & Son, is planned on the same idea, and for much the same aspect as "Caythorpe,"Lincolnshire (Blomfield), although it is on a much smaller scale. The most has here been made of comparatively small grounds and greatly restricted views by contriving the drive round a circular pergola on the north, within an angle of the wood, from which it is separated by grass, while there is a screen of roses on the south-east, surrounding a sunken and sun-lit tennis-court, to which it imparts the needed shade, while a mass of blossom is seen from the house.

In this house the entrance is in the re-entering angle of the L, and an inner hall has to serve the purpose of a drawing-room, for which there is no provision. The kitchen is separated from the house proper by a serving passage large enough to be used as a pantry, and the scullery with its washing copper is again disconnected, though, by means of a covered way, both it and the coal-store and servants' w.c.'s can be easily reached under cover. Minor points, such as the supply of coals from the stable-yard, have been well considered, and the plan is worth a good deal of careful study.

A circular porch gives entrance to an irregular hexagonal hall, from which a study and stairs are reached, as well as the raised platform of a billiard-room at the western end of the house. The dining-room is, as is customary, in the south-east corner, the cloakroom and gentlemen's w.c. adjoining it, while the servants' hall is close to the porch. ["Modern Buildings, Their Planning, Construction and Equipment, Volume 1", G A T Middleton].