26 C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 Rolls-Royce limousine became the preferred motor for the land-owning classes. Charles Rolls was not the only aristocrat to become involved in the manufacture of motor cars. The 13th Earl of Shrewsbury went into partnership withAlphonse Clement, eventually producing his own Talbot motor cars, which were manufactured successfully until 1925, and Earl Fitzwilliam became directly involved in the manufacture of the Simplex motor car. The motor house which Charles Rolls erected at his father’s country seat, The Hendre in Monmouthshire, was described as the ‘ideal motor house’ by The Car Illustrated in 1906. Here the garages were arranged around two sides of an internal court covered by a glazed roof, with the stores and mechanics’ mess room occupying the remaining sides.The central court acted as a covered washing place. This remarkable building has recently been converted into a golf clubhouse. One of the finest motor houses was built at Ewelme Down in Oxfordshire to the designs of Walter Cave for Frank Lawson in 1905. Here the motor house was arranged around an open courtyard with a single broad entrance arch on one side, much like a traditional stable court. Designed in a style reminiscent of the work of CFA Voysey, the building includes accommodation for chauffeurs and for visiting chauffeurs, a generator, a battery house, stores, workshops with overhead hoists, and garaging for at least five motor cars. This motor house was recommended as a model by Charles HarrisonTownsend in a rare article in the architectural press which specifically addressed the design of this new building type. A number of the new country houses built during the early years of the motor car’s existence were provided with accommodation for both coaches and for motor cars. In two surviving examples, at Crathorne Manor in Yorkshire and at Littlecourt in Leicestershire, the stable and coach house accommodation faced into the main courtyard and the motor house was accessed from outside, presumably so that the noisy and smelly motor cars did not disturb the horses. Although a number of interesting motor houses were built at new country houses, the majority of country house owners simply converted existing buildings, usually coach houses, into garages. At DunhamMassey in Cheshire, for example, Compton Hall carried out major alterations to the house between 1905 and 1910, including the conversion of half of the early 18th century coach house to motor accommodation. The dividing walls were removed from between the former coach houses, inspection pits were sunk into the new concrete floors and heating pipes were installed. Similar conversions were carried out at innumerable country houses. Often the doors to these former coach houses were glazed as part of these conversions, and many coach houses were given iron-and-glass canopies to provide an external washing place. Occasionally other buildings were converted into garages. At Beechwood Park in Bedfordshire the former chapel was converted into garaging and at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire one of the squash courts was similarly converted. Most new houses in the inter-war years were designed with an extensive motor house or range of garages, and occasionally houses built just before the war had motor houses added. At Marsh Court, for example, Edwin Lutyens added a fine clap-boarded motor house for Herbert Johnson in the 1920s. At Lutyens’ later houses, at both Gledstone Hall in Yorkshire and at Middleton Park in Oxfordshire, he incorporated the motor accommodation in a side wing, taking over the traditional position of the stable. It was only at the new homes of true motor enthusiasts that the motor house was incorporated into the main house. A rare example of this phenomenon can be found at Ridgemead, the country seat ofWolf Barnato, a racing driver and director of Bentley Motors, which was designed by Robert Lutyens in 1938. Today the commonest form of garaging found at country houses, the simple row of functional garages, is remarkably similar to that first set of garages erected for the Hon Evelyn Ellis at the very end of the 19th century. As motor cars have become more reliable and robust, the need for specialist equipment has declined and consequently the buildings needed to house them have become simpler. This article is based on English Heritage Research Department Report Series No 94-2010,‘The Motor Car and the Country House’ by Pete Smith, ISSN 1749-8775, which is downloadable as a pdf from the English Heritage website. The inner courtyard of the motor house at Ewelme Down in Oxfordshire, photographed in 1906 (Photo:The Car Illustrated,VCCGB) The central heating pipes installed in the former coach house at Dunham Massey in Cheshire when it was converted into motor house by Compton Hall between 1905 and 1910 (Photo: Pete Smith) Pete Smith is senior architectural investigator with English Heritage.
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