A description of the buildings by Sir Gilbert Scott, and other buildings associated with the Scott family in Wappenham.

Wappenham Village possesses important architectural and historical connections with the great Victorian architect Sir Gilbert Scott and his family. Five buildings are recorded as his works, and six others are either attributable to him or are associated with the Scott "dynasties" in the village. Scott's buildings in Wappenham are mostly from his early career and are not among his great works of architecture, but they are of architectural, historical and cultural importance. The buildings provide an important insight into Scott's early development and family background. Some are sited around the Green, and all are visible, one from another. They form a unique group and most are not listed. Surely they, along with the other older buildings in Wappenham - some of which are listed - should be protected for posterity.

The Wappenham group of Scott buildings should not be seen in isolation, but can be thought of as part of a Scott trail related to many of his works in this region. Close by is the Towcester Poor Law Institute (Workhouse) of 1836, the Parsonage at Blakesley, major church restorations in Northampton and works around the County, while some of Scott's most important works are to be found in Oxford and Cambridge.

(1) The Old Rectory, Rectory Way. This is the first house built by the young apprentice architect, Gilbert Scott and, later, mentioned in the list of his buildings. It was built for his father, Rev. Thomas Scott who was appointed to the living in 1832/3 by the Duke of Buckingham. Previously, Rev. Thomas Scott had been rector of Gawcott near Buckingham, but his very low-church, evangelical style hadn't suited a notorious gambling Duke! He got him out of his hair as soon as he could.

On his appointment / translation to Wappenham, he found the then Rectory (now Beeches Farm) unsuitable for family occupation and "ruinous". He demanded reparations from the widow of the previous incumbent, Rev. Henry Portington - an Oxford University don who only came to the village for Christmas, Easter and Whitsun. Mrs Portington replied to the effect that she had never set foot in the village and had no idea what they were talking about. Thomas Scott got third son, Gilbert, to survey the house, took Mrs Portington to the Ecclesiastical Court and obtained from her recompense / dilapidations of £1500. This sum enabled him to commission the young apprentice architect Gilbert to design and built a new red brick and slate Rectory in Rectory Way (now known as The Old Rectory). In Personal and Professional Recollections, Scott recorded that he had found the design in the bottom drawer of the architect he was assisting, Henry Roberts. The house incorporated a small Study for his father and a Church Officers' (Churchwardens, Sexton, Verger etc) Meeting room at the front (N. side) of the building, as well as the Dining Room. The Sitting Room and Breakfast Room / Parlour were on the South side. There was a well in the cellar, a privy across the lawn in the garden, a small coach house and a stable for one horse, as well as a fuel store opposite the side door. Above these was a long room, originally divided into one small and one larger room for servants. Rev. Thomas Scott moved into the new house in 1835, but only about five months later was found dead in his chair in his study. He was succeeded - who pulled the strings? - by his eldest son, Rev. Thomas Scott Junior, married to Fanny, a relation of his mother's, with a brand new baby. Thomas Scott Junior was aged 23 - 24.

(2) Beeches Farm, (which was the rectory before Scott's new Rectory was built), was hastily repaired and redecorated by the younger brother Gilbert as a Dower House for his mother and younger brothers and sisters. (Graffiti recording the heights of the growing Scott children survive in the attics from 1840s.) At Beeches Farm, as the senior Scott family grew and went off to university, others arrived. First Grandmama - Euphemia Lynch (1755 - 1835), widow of Doctor Thomas Lynch, mother of Euphemia Scott, wife of Thomas Scott senior. Mrs Lynch was born Euphemia Gilbert on the island of Antigua, West Indies. Her family claimed direct descent from Sir Humphrey Gilbert, (half brother of Sir Walter Raleigh) who settled in the West Indies in the early 1600's. They were plantation aristocrats and probably slave owners, though some preferred indentured convict-labour. They were much influenced during Mrs. Lynch's lifetime by the "Methodist movement". Her family claimed to have entertained both George Whitfield and one of the Wesleys on fact-finding missions to the New World. The slave revolts of the French revolutionary period and the Napoleonic wars meant that the infant Euphemia junior was sent to England for safety to relatives of the Gilbert family, somewhere in Bucks. When her mother rejoined her is not known, but her father worked as a doctor in Antigua and is believed to have died there. Mrs. Scott could scarcely have known him. Her mother possibly joined her quite early in her marriage. Euphemia Lynch is buried beside her daughter in Wappenham churchyard... one wonders what she thought of the village?

The daughter, Euphemia Scott's eldest son was christened Thomas, after his father and hers and remained plain Thomas Scott. At some point, Euphemia Scott's Gilbert heritage was made very clear to her. Her fourth child (the architect to be) was christened George Gilbert - 'Gilbert' after his maternal grandmother's family. Later he dropped the 'George' in favour of 'Gilbert' Scott, and eventually became Sir Gilbert Scott. Some of his younger brothers also have 'Gilbert' as a second christian name and subsequent descendants tended to use 'Gilbert' as part of their surname. Not surprisingly there is a common confusion with the names of father and son. The father was properly known as Sir Gilbert Scott and his son, a less renowned architect, George Gilbert Scott.

As young Scotts left Beeches Farm, pupils of the eldest son, Rev. Thomas junior, moved in. He prepared students for Oxbridge entrance exams. He had a truly Victorian family of growing young children, so the new rectory could not house his pupils, family and domestic help! The loft over his stables became his schoolroom and his mother's attics at Beeches Farm became sleeping quarters for his pupils. Their initials and dates are recorded there in candle smoke!

Mrs. Euphemia Scott died in 1855, by which time her family had dispersed or died - except one, Caroline (see 6, below).

(3) Rectory Farm, (then c.360 acres) was also owned by the Rector of Wappenham during his tenure as "parson's freehold" (as established by the 1761 Enclosure act.) Additional stabling and barn space would have been available there. Before the Tithe barn was sold off at the end of 1980s, there was a range of brick built pigsties and stables, as well as the original stone buildings, which were then demolished.

(4) The Granary and Cart Shed at Rectory farm is the sole survivor of the farm buildings erected at Rectory Farm during Thomas Scott junior's life. It is partly stone, partly brick, with outside stairs and 15 pigeonholes on the South side. In style - with its quarter hip roof - it is not quite "native" to Northants, and therefore may be from a design supplied by brother Gilbert from the architectural "school" in which he worked. (There were several "pupil- architects" in this group.)

(5) No.1, Greenside: Mentioned in the list of Sir Gilbert Scott's buildings, a small brick villa stands at the West corner of the Green opposite the ex-pub, the Old Bull. This was built early in the architect's career for a widow, Mrs Jane Farthing. Her father had been a priest at Kingston -upon - Hull. She was daughter of John Scott (Thomas Scott senior's eldest brother) and also related in some sort of way, I think, to Fanny, wife of Rev Thomas Scott junior. (They believed in keeping it in the family). She died in 1880, and there was considerable interaction between Wappenham and Kingston - upon - Hull in terms of workmen, especially carpenters, going from one to the other, in the 1840s. (cf. tape recording of Mrs Daisy Causebrook. b. 1902. County Oral History Archive, Central Reference Library, Abington St., Northampton. Her grandfather, surnamed King, had been one such workman). The original design of this "villa" was for a single lady and a maid / housekeeper, with a "front" parlour, divided from the kitchen area by the stairs. There were a privy and barns at the back and a tiny garden. The barns have now become a kitchen, and a door put into the front parlour to make a dining room of the original kitchen. The original main bedroom and its dressing room have been altered.

(6) No 1 The Lane. Mrs. Euphemia Scott's daughter Caroline had contracted what was possibly poliomyelitis. A teenage brother, Nathaniel Gilbert Scott, had died. Caroline's eldest brother had no room for her in the Rectory and Mrs. Farthing's house (1 Greenside - see (5) above) was not available after her mother died. A house - entered in the list of Sir Gilbert Scott's buildings - was built for Caroline on church-owned land, now No. 1 The Lane. Another brick villa now altered. The present Sitting room was two rooms, Sitting and Bedroom, on the ground floor facing south and west, with a tiny Kitchen and a larger ground floor Bathroom with a hoist. The upstairs was the domain of a carer and maid. It originally had a large and pleasant garden with, in the 1950's, old fruit trees. Some claim it is still haunted by a lady who screams with pain.

(7) The Hollies. The Reverend Thomas Scott junior was "into" education, so it is not surprising that, opposite No. 1 The Lane, is The Hollies, originally the village schoolmaster's house. Built in the 1860's - the date is diapered in blue brick amongst the red on the eastern side. The house shows distinct "Victorian gothic" touches unlike the buildings we have seen so far. It is among Gilbert Scott's list of works (as are the two villas and rectory above). It includes provision for a pony and trap, but not for live-in domestic help. Originally, it was a family house, though it has seen few children; one child is said to haunt it and may be buried quite legitimately in its grounds. It is believed to have been "sold off" by the school governors about the time of World War I.

(8) The Village school. Contemporary with the School House (The Hollies, see 7 above), in the Gilbert Scott list of works is the Village School itself - now known as The Old School, or to newcomers as The Village Hall. The school was closed and transposed in the early 1960's (1963?). After many years negotiation it has finally been leased to the village by the Diocese of Peterborough, and funds are being sought to make it more attractive and viable as a village hall. Never a pretty building, it, nevertheless, has "balance" and several "gothic" touches, including the entrance porch, a high East rose window and arrow slits!

(9) Barn at Wild Hill. A possible contender to some Gilbert Scott influence is a brick built farm barn in a field down a small lane at the top of Wild Hill. It is possible because of one feature mentioned in (7) above. A building date in the late 1840's is diapered in blue brick on the eastern side. These are the only two instances of this locally, and either indicate the same builder or the same designer. It could be the same builder because several brick structures from circa 1835 onwards have chequer board diaper work. It is quite a feature of the village, but not every such building has it. Beeches Farm, No. 1 The Lane, The Hollies, No. 1 Greenside, and The Old Rectory stables all do, and the brick laying pattern of the school is also distinctive. Only The Hollies and this barn have blue brick dates, more than two feet high.

(10) Telephone Kiosk on the Green. The red telephone kiosk on the Green is a design circa 1932 of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, grandson of Sir Gilbert Scott. A nice touch in front of a Sir Gilbert Scott renovated former rectory (Beeches Farm) and close to both Sir Gilbert Scott's first building, another former rectory, and the "Villa" at 1, Greenside, as well as Sir Gilbert and Rev. Thomas Scott's renovated Church and Churchyard where at least seven of their relatives are buried.

(11) Wappenham Church. The renovations to Wappenham Church are not on the list of his works, but he must have had a considerable input. Two craftsmen/suppliers who worked with him at Oxford (Martyrs Memorial, etc.) worked on Wappenham church. One, Richard Leeson, moved from Paradise Lost, Oxford, with his infant son and became the carpenter for re-pewing the nave, the pulpit and screen, commandment table, reading desks, etc. Another supplier of stone and timber from Hornton near Banbury moved to Wappenham in the 1840's, built a house on The Leys, married and through female descendants was the great grandfather of Norman and Percy Ayres (c.f. Ivor Percy Ayres, b.1900 tape, County Oral History Archive). Can't remember name, but I think it was Harris. He died in 1908, "very old". I think he had some connection with the transport of stone, brick and slate. He could certainly read and write, built a house with three rooms on the ground floor and four to five bedroom above and lodged railway workers when that came through the village circa 1860.

Notes on Scott family:-

(1) Sir Gilbert Scott. His full name was George Gilbert Scott, 'George' and 'Gilbert' being first and second names, but professionally he was known as Gilbert Scott, then Sir Gilbert Scott. (His son - a less well known architect was also George Gilbert Scott - hence the cause of frequent confusion!). Sir Gilbert Scott was one of the most successful and famous Victorian architects - he is renowned for The Albert Memorial, The Midlands Hotel at St Pancras Station, The Foreign Office and many churches and countless church restorations - as well as for the very large number of pupils trained in his office.

(2) George Gilbert Scott. Sir Gilbert Scott's first son used the 'Gilbert' as a surname when he joined what was an established architectural practice. Although he is not as important an architect as Sir Gilbert Scott senior, he is now the subject of revived interest - see Gavin Stamp: An Architecture of Promise: George Gilbert Scott Jnr. and the Late Gothic Revival. Published by Shaun Tyas, 2003

(3) John Oldrid Scott. Sir Gilbert Scott's second son, carried on father's practice.

(4) Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Son of George Gilbert Scott again used the 'Gilbert' as a surname when he joined the practice. Architect of Liverpool Cathedral, Battersea Power Station, Bankside Power Station, Waterloo Bridge and designer of the 'red' telephone Kiosk.

(5) Richard Gilbert Scott. Son of Sir Giles, and (6) Elizabeth Gilbert Scot, both architects - well known in c.1930s - 50s

Lots of Scotts and Gilbert Scotts became clergymen and doctors as well as architects. All were great exploiters of family contacts. In the blood!! Sir Gilbert Scott was ideally poised to become the top Victorian church architect with his wide reaching family contacts in the Victorian (low and evangelical) Church.

For dates, bibliography and further reference see:

COLE, David. (1980) The Work of Sir Gilbert Scott. Architectural Press.
GILBERT SCOTT, George, ed. (1879) Personal and Professional Recollections. Sampson Law and Co.

© Eileen Robbins 2003