Guildford Society visit to Goddards on Abinger Common

Members and Non-Members of the Guildford Society visited Goddards at Abinger Hatch. Some met for lunch at The Abinger Hatch that is a 17th century building that before becoming a local hostelry, was at various times a Post Office in the 18th century and later part of the Surrey Trust Company estate which managed the local pubs in the area.

“Goddards” is a large country house at Abinger Common designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1898 for Frederick Mirrielees, a wealthy philanthropist, as a charitable holiday home “for women of limited means”. Later in 1910, Lutyens was commissioned to extend and convert the house into a large private residence for Mirrielees’ son. The house was finally bequeathed to the Lutyens Trust in 1991 and is currently owned and managed by the Landmark Trust. More Details can be seen here.  Lutyens is one of Britains best known architects of the 19th - 20th century and as well as domestic architecture is well know for planning New Delhi and the design the Centotaph.

It is considered one of his most important early houses designed by Lutyens in the traditional Surrey style, he was bought up in Thursley so had a real feel for the county, with a garden laid out in collaboration with the celebrated garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. Apart from some quite astonishing hand-crafted metalwork designed and fabricated by John Starkie Gardner, one of the most respected metalwork designers of the Arts & Crafts period, the house incorporates a number of delightful elements collected by the Mirrielees family including fragments of stained-glass windows and Delft tiles. 

The Society is indebted to Niles Laub a GSoc member for the photgraphs.  Niels is part of Abbotswood Residents itself an interesting estate on the Portsmouth Road in Guildford.  More details here.

The Society is planning further visits to buildings of interest which will be advertised via our Website and Newsletters when available for booking.