Ground floor plan of Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, with proposed alterations
Trenwith Lovering Wills (1891 - 1972)
Category
Architecture / Drawings
Date
1941 (?)
Materials
Blueprint with pencil and coloured pencil
Measurements
600 x 1070 mm
Place of origin
Yeoman's Row [S.W.3]
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 206325
Summary
Trenwith Lovering Wills (1891-1972). Ground floor plan of Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, with proposed alterations, 1941, inscribed 'Wimpole Hall / Cambridgeshire / Proposed Alterations', 'Drawing No.3', 'Ground Floor Plan', 'Trenwith Wills F.R.I.B.A. / 24, Yeoman's Row, / Brompton Road, / London S.W.3.', 'Scale: '1" to 8' 0" ', room names given, blueprint with pencil and coloured pencil additions and annotations (600 x 1070mm)
Full description
This scheme is illustrative of the reductive way in which great country houses were adapted during the inter- and post-war years in order to serve changing needs; in the case of Wimpole, a very small household. With his partner, the Hon. Gerald Wellesley, later 7th Duke of Wellington, Wills built up a country house practice specialising in just such adaptations and alterations. The Bambridges used the small room on the north front of the house to the east of the saloon as their dining room rather than H.E. Kendall’s great dining room. Trenwith Wills subdivided the latter to provide, from west to east: a servery, pantry, and kitchen with larder. This solution is almost identical to that which R.F.G. Aylwin had suggested in December 1935 (NT 206300.2) The partition walls were to support a false ceiling which, until its removal by the National Trust in 1979, hid the ornate mid-nineteenth century plasterwork above. The drawing shows that it was the architect’s intention to encase the dining room fireplace behind a breeze block partition. The fireplace, the dado panelling, the doorcases and some of the other architectural elements of the room were, however, unfortunately stripped out and disposed of - presumably at the time when Wills’s proposals were effected. The drawing also describes the re-facing of the east and west ends of the building, which was necessitated by the truncation of the east service wing and the demolition of the conservatory to the west. A garage, accessed from the east service courtyard, was also formed in the laundry wing. This scheme must have been drawn after 1939, when Wills became a Fellow of RIBA, and presumably after 1940 when George Banyard undertook a survey of Wimpole Hall for the new owners, the Bambridges (NT 206303.1 - 206303.5). Banyard’s survey record shows the great dining room intact. Catalogue entry adapted from David Adshead, Wimpole Architectural drawings and topographical views, The National Trust, 2007.
Provenance
Bequeathed by Elsie Kipling, Mrs George Bambridge (1896 – 1976), daughter of Rudyard Kipling, to the National Trust together with Wimpole Hall, all its contents and an estate of 3000 acres
Marks and inscriptions
Top, centre: Wimpole Hall / Cambridgeshire / Proposed Alterations Top right: Drawing No.3 Bottom, centre: Ground Floor Plan Bottom right: Trenwith Wills F.R.I.B.A. / 24, Yeoman's Row, / Brompton Road, / London S.W.3 Bottom left: Scale: 1" to 8'0"
Makers and roles
Trenwith Lovering Wills (1891 - 1972), architect
References
Adshead 2007: David Adshead, Wimpole Architectural drawings and topographical views, The National Trust, 2007, p.136, no. 314