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MonteagleHouse

Page history last edited by Peter Tipton 16 years ago

Monteagle House

Conservation Status: Listed Grade II

(Called Little Monteagle House in current Listed Buildings Register)

Late C16 or early C17 timber framed Gentleman's residence with central chimney stack with later, C17, two-storey front porch. In the C18 became a farmhouse as a result of which it had relatively little subsequent alteration.

Listing History & Name Changes

Listed as one of the six original Grade II buildings in Yateley on 8 Jul 1952 as Monteagle Farmhouse on Vigo Lane. Unfortunately this started a catalogue of confusion regarding its name which has never been corrected. The property was surveyed pursuant to the 1947 Act when it was a farmhouse in 69 acres of farmland. However on 21 Dec 1951 the building was sold in about 9 acres to enable the farmer to build a new farmhouse on Monteagle Lane, now the Monteagle Arms. The farmer transferred the name Monteagle Farm from the old building to his new farmhouse. Thus the building which was listed six months later as Monteagle Farmhouse had already been renamed Lower Monteagle Farm by the new owners in 1951. The planners caught up with this name change in the mid 1970s, but unfortunately 10 years earlier on 24 Aug 1964 the Listed Building had been sold by the 1951 purchasers in about 1.25 acres of land. The 1951 purchasers built a new bungalow on their residual land in 1964 and transferred the name Lower Monteagle Farm to their new bungalow. The name of the building intended to be listed in 1952 was changed in 1964 to Monteagle House, its name ever since.

The name in the listed buildings register has therefore first applied to a new-build bungalow of 1951 and then a second new-build bungalow of 1964 -- and since 1987, a building which doesn't exist, and never existed. The present owner has tried unsuccessfully to correct the name for 30 years but has now given up. In the past this confusion has meant that the LPA has granted planning permissions for an extension to be a playschool, not realising Monteagle House was a listed building.

Since before the mid 1700s until 1951 the farm was called Monteagle Farm, or Mounteagle Farm, or just Mounteagle. The customary name found in the manorial court books is Brickhills. The enfranchisement of 1915 uses both Monteagle Farm and Brickhills.

Official Listing Citation

The revised description is given at entry 3/2 in the schedule to the twenty third List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest as at 26th June 1987

Special Architectural Interest

Several architectural surveys have been carried out by archaeologists and architectural historians. The earliest was made for Hampshire Treasures by a member of North East Hampshire Archaeological Society. In 1980 a thorough survey, including measured drawings was carried out by the architect Richard Warmington. A team from the Surrey Domestic Buildings Research Group also made a thorough study in 1984. More recently the building has been visited by three members of the team compiling the revision of the Hampshire 'Pevsner'. In 2004 the current owners commissioned a dendrochronological investigation by A K Moir, coinciding with the wider dendro project in Surrey by Surrey Archaeological Society.

Special Historic Interest

The house is still widely believed to have been the residence of Lord Monteagle and to have been associated with the Gunpowder Plot. The first record of this tradition is found in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1794. Despite exhaustive research by the local historian Sir Thomas Sturmy Cave, and the present owners, there appears to be no truth in this legend concerning the Gunpowder Plot. Whether there was every any connection with Lord Monteagle is till open to debate.

Owners and Occupiers

Owners of Monteagle House from 1915 to the present can be found in the current deeds of the house. Those owners before 1951 are listed in the Second Schedule to the 1951 Conveyance. Before 1915, Monteagle Farm was a copyholding of the Manor of Crondall. The enfranchisement of 1915 provides an entry into the manorial court books, and by tracking owners in the Index to the Court Books, the ownership of the property can now easily be found in the Hampshire Record Office back to 1729. Before 1729 the Court Books are written in Latin and are kept in the Winchester Cathedral Library. The present owners have researched the owners and occupiers of the property back to 1617. It has not been possible to determine from the Manorial Court Books whether the building existed before that date since there is no reference to it. However there are substantial gaps in the records resulting from the sacking of the Cathedral Library by Parliamentary soldiers during the Civil War.

A complete list of owners and occupiers of Monteagle House before 1951

Interior Features

The main internal feature is the brick-built stack around which the timberframe house was built. The stack originally had four fireplaces: the two in the upper storey having been blocked up since 1951. The main fireplace in the 'hall' has a width of 85 inches and a height at centre of 55 inches, and contains a bread-oven. The roof is unusual in being heavy constructed using staggered purlins. Carpenters' marks are still visible on exposed beams.

The Setting

Until the 1980s the setting of the listed building was extensive with views to and from the building from the Finchampstead Ridges. After the construction of the Monteagle Park housing estate, and amenity buildings on the Monteagle Open Space, views to and from the listed building are restricted to its own curtilage.