Milton Court

View of the front of Milton Court
Milton Court
Position in the Vale of Holmesdale and Mole Valley, Surrey

Milton Court, at the far west of the town of Dorking, is a 16th-century country house in Surrey.

Development

Milton Court was expanded and substantially rebuilt by the Victorian architect William Burges. The court is a Grade II* Listed Building (in the middle category, short of exclusive grade I listed status) including the attached forecourt walls, balustrading, terrace, piers, urns and stone-carved ball finial.[1]

Originally a priory, the estate was granted to George Evelyn, father of the diarist John Evelyn, at the Protestant Reformation, lord of the manor of adjoining manor of Wotton, Surrey where the family established still grander and more expensive Wotton House, today a hotel. In the nineteenth century, it was bought by Lachlan Mackintosh Rate, a wealthy lawyer, banker and philanthropist. He employed William Burges to undertake substantial rebuilding. Working in an ornate Jacobean style, Burgess added twenty rooms, with elaborate fireplaces and ceilings. Perhaps the most successful is the famed Flower room, formerly Mrs Rate's boudoir. Nicholas Pevsner describes it as "a picturesque seven-bay house with shaped gables".[2] Were the Court residential it would be well within the contemporary meaning of the word 'mansion' based on its number of rooms and it surrounded by agricultural fields. It is on the plain of the Pipp Brook before it joins the River Mole to the other side of the town.

The house is now the UK headquarters of the health insurance company Unum, which has done much to restore the vivid colour bricks — subtly shifting from red to yellow of the main brickwork across the bays of the exterior — some work has also been undertaken to restore and conserve plaster, stone and faded Victorian decoration.

Notes

  1. ↑ Good Stuff IT Services (1973-06-11). "Milton Court, Including Attached Forecourt Walls, Balustrading, Terrace, Piers, Urns and Ball Finial - Dorking - Surrey - England". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 2012-02-12.
  2. ↑ The Buildings of England: Surrey, page 368

References

Coordinates: 51°13′54″N 0°21′08″W / 51.23171°N 0.35224°W