Horsley Towers,

East Horsley East Horsley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, 21 miles southwest of London, on the A246 between Leatherhead and Guildford. Horsley and Effingham Junction railway stations are on the New Guildford line to London Waterloo. ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England is a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

dating from the 19th century. The house was designed by

Charles Barry Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also respons ...

for the banker William Currie. The East Horsley estate was later sold to

William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace, FRS (21 February 1805 – 29 December 1893), styled the Honourable William King until 1833 and Lord King from 1833 to 1838, was an English nobleman and scientist. Early life and background Lovelac ...

who undertook two major expansions of the house to his own designs. Lovelace lived at the Towers with his wife,

Ada Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

, daughter of

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

, a pioneering mathematician, friend of

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

and described as among the first computer programmers. In 1919, the Towers was purchased by

Thomas Sopwith Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, CBE, Hon FRAeS (18 January 1888 – 27 January 1989) was an English aviation pioneer, businessman and yachtsman. Early life Sopwith was born in Kensington, London, on 18 January 1888. He was the e ...

, the aviator and businessman, who named his plane, the

Hawker Horsley The Hawker Horsley was a British single-engined biplane bomber of the 1920s. It was the last all-wooden aircraft built by Hawker Aircraft, and served as a medium day bomber and torpedo bomber with Britain's Royal Air Force between 1926 and 1935 ...

, after his home. Now a wedding and conference venue, Horsley Towers is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

William Currie was a banker and distiller, who had inherited a substantial fortune from his father, on the latter's death in 1781. In 1820, Currie engaged

to replace the existing

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

manor house on his East Horsley estate. It was an early commission for Barry, then aged 25, who opened the London office of his architectural practice only in 1821. Following Currie's death in 1829, the Horsley estate was bought by William King, who was raised in the peerage to Earl of Lovelace in 1838 and served as

Lord Lieutenant of Surrey This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Surrey. Since 1737, all Lords Lieutenant have also been Custos Rotulorum of Surrey. Lord Lieutenants of Surrey *William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton 1551–1553? *William Howard, ...

from 1840 until his death in 1893. King had married Augusta Ada Byron, Lord Byron's only legitimate offspring in 1833. Lovelace, who began his career as a diplomat, turned to scientific investigation and engineering after inheriting his title. A roof truss in the great hall he designed at Horsley carries an inscription recording that Lovelace had moulded the beam with the use of steam. Ada gained even greater prominence for her scientific endeavours; through her friendship with

she wrote a commentary on his analytical engine, arguably the earliest

mechanical computer A mechanical computer is a computer built from mechanical components such as levers and gears rather than electronic components. The most common examples are adding machines and mechanical counters, which use the turning of gears to increment outp ...

. Her commentary has been described as containing "one of the earliest computer programmes". In 1919 the third earl sold the East Horsley estate to

, the aviator and businessman for £150,000. While resident at the Towers, Sopwith named one of his aircraft, the

, after the house. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the house was purchased by the

Electricity Council The Electricity Council was a governmental body set up in 1958 to oversee the electricity supply industry in England and Wales. The council was established on 1 January 1958 to assume the coordinating and policy-making functions of the Central El ...

for use as a management training college. It is now a wedding and conference venue operated by De Vere.

Architecture and description

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

describes the approach to the Towers as "one of the most sensational in England". The core of the present house is Barry's building of 1820–1829, undertaken in the

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

style. This is enveloped with a great hall, built by Lovelace in 1849, and by even larger flanking towers, in Romanesque and

Rhenish The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

styles, and a chapel, all dating from 1859 and after, and drawing inspiration from a long European tour Lovelace undertook following Ada's death in 1852. The whole is encircled by a complex of walls, tunnels, arches, bastions and a lengthy

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

. The construction materials are mainly local flint and brick, Lovelace purchasing a brickworks at Ockham to ensure a ready supply. Horsley Towers is a

. The flanking walls and pavilions to the northwest and southwest, the entrance walls and lodges, one of which Nairn describes as "particularly violent", and the walls to the former

kitchen garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

, all have their own Grade II listings. Neither Barry nor Lovelace's efforts have been much appreciated by critics. The

Victorian Web The Victorian Web is a hypertext project derived from hypermedia environments, Intermedia and Storyspace, that anticipated the World Wide Web. Initially created between 1988 and 1990 with 1,500 documents, it grew to 50,000 in the 21st century. In c ...

notes that "the building, like much Victorian gothic, displays a good deal of eccentricity and mixes many styles".

Ian Nairn Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised criti ...

, the main author of the Surrey Pevsner, wrote of Barry's

house; "a sober, dull design with the ..lack of enthusiasm which taints so many of Barry's non-Classical buildings". Of Lovelace's work, Mark Girouard, the architectural historian, described the "extraordinary embellishments, in

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

and polychrome brick made by the Earl, working to his own designs". The writer

John Julius Norwich John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, travel writer, and television personality. Background Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing ...

considered the whole "a grotesque Victorian

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

which has to be seen to be believed - and may not be even then", concluding that, unusually, his inclusion of Horsley Towers in his study ''The Architecture of Southern England'', should serve as a warning rather than an inducement.

Gallery

Horsley Towers entrance.jpg , The entrance front -

called the approach to the house "one of the most sensational in England" Horsley Towers across the lawn.jpg , View from across the lawn - The

described Lovelace's Romanesque tower as "a church tower to which someone has attached cylinders" Horsley Towers over the Meadow - geograph.org.uk - 438820.jpg , The rear frontage of the house - the central block is by Barry, the towers Lovelace's additions Former Gatehouse to Horsley Towers - geograph.org.uk - 438854.jpg , A view of one of the

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...

s, the design of which

described as "particularly violent"

Footnotes

References

Sources

* * * * * {{Cite book , last=Robertson , first=Bruce , title=Sopwith: The man and his aircraft , url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/sopwith-the-man-and-his-aircraft/oclc/568583334?referer=br&ht=edition , year=1970 , publisher=Air Review Ltd , location=Letchworth, UK , oclc=156428 Country houses in Surrey Grade II* listed houses Grade II* listed buildings in Surrey