In a recent article I told how the celebrated architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott was commissioned to build the new church at West Meon, a commission that cost the good rector, Archdeacon Bayley, some £16,000. Although Scott was a young man at the time, he went on to design such monuments at St. Pancras Station, the Foreign Office and the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. Yet he was far from alone in plying his trade locally, even though two of the best known Victorian architects, Augustus Pugin, who built the Palace of Westminster, and Joseph Paxman, creator if the Crystal Palace, are missing. The most prolific was Sir Arthur Blomfield, an architect who could be surprisingly mundane, but when the money was available, as it was from the Nicholson family at Privett, he could design buildings of the finest quality.

Pevsner’s Buildings of Hampshire, the bible of all lovers of architecture, describes his St. Mary’s, Liss as dignified and dull, and compared with his best work, like Holy Trinity at Privett or St. Mary’s, Portsea, it certainly is. But then, Holy Trinity cost £22,000

Money was without doubt an important factor in the creation of the model village at Blackmoor. In 1865 Sir Roundell Palmer, first Earl of Selborne, commissioned Sir Alfred Waterhouse to build a church, school and several houses, culminating in Blackmoor House.

Waterhouse was a Quaker, born in Manchester, where much of his work, including Strangeways prison, survives today. He was known as the Terra-cotta King, on account of the red colour of his two best known buildings, the Natural History Museum and the former Prudential Assurance Building in Holborn. He also used the round-headed Norman arch far more freely than other Victorian architects. St. Matthew’s Church, Blackmoor, was completed in 1868, and is notable for its fine tower with a pyramid roof.

The school, now the village hall, was opened shortly afterwards and Blackmoor House completed in 1873, though Waterhouse himself designed additions ten years later. Sir Herbert Baker’s War Memorial Cloister completes a perfect village picture.

Less well known that the others, Samuel Sanders Teulon designed Hawkley Hurst for J.J. Maberly in 1860, who then employed him to rebuild the village church. Teulon received a large number of Royal commissions, and his work can be seen on the Royal Estate at Windsor and at Elvetham hall, near Fleet.

He was considered a rogue architect by his contemporaries, and noted for his vigorous and often highly original interpretation of the Gothic style. There is, however, nothing original about the tower at Hawkley , for it is a copy of the famous Rhenish helm at Sompting, near Worthing, but inside Teulon lets his imagination take fire. The round columns and huge carved capitals create a Spanish, almost Moorish, effect and the richly decorated entrance to the north chapel, originally the family pew, is pure conceit. There is one more well known name to consider: G.E. Street, another Gothic revivalist and designer of the Royal Courts of Justice. The new church at Milland, built in 1877 to replace the old chapel which had fallen into disrepair, was largely due to the efforts of the then vicar, Rev. E. Durnford.

Land was given by Sir John Hawkshaw of Hollycombe, who was a major benefactor for the inhabitants of the Milland valley, and many others contributed financially towards the £4000 required by Street and his builders. Street’s building was always controversial, and Pevsner describes it as a nasty, fussy job - too cruel, perhaps, for there is no denying its beautiful woodland setting.

So here, on our doorstep, we have buildings by Scott, Blomfield, Waterhouse, Teulon and Street, all leading practitioners of their time. What of the 20th century? Lutyens, Basil Spence, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers? Lutyens designed Monkton House, hidden away in the Downs north of Singleton; Spence was responsible for several buildings at Southampton University, hardly close by, but I doubt if the last two have anything around here. In fact, other than Petersfield Library and the Olivier Theatre and new Admin Block at Bedales, where are there any contemporary buildings of real quality? I’d love to know.

Tom Muckley, December 2006


Since this article appeared I have been informed by Mr Sam Pope, Churchwarden of St. Lukes, Milland with Rake, that St. Luke’s was not the work of G.E. Street, but a local architect, William Street, who was brother of the principal benefactor, George Street, of Heathmount, Rake.


This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

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