Thorpeness

Pictures of buildings mentioned in the second edition “Suffolk” volume of “The Buildings of England” series by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner.

The entry in Edition 2 of Pevsner's Suffolk (published 1974) for Thorpeness is unusual in that the church is mentioned last. It is worth quoting the whole entry:

"Thorpeness is something extremely rare, a planned seaside resort. It was built largely in the course of some twenty years and to the design first of W. G. Wilson and later of F. Forbes Glennie. The property remained in the hands of the same family during that time and has not changed hands since. The resort is kept relatively small, and the style of architecture is domestic and undemonstrative, with timber-framing and weatherboarding. Work started in 1910, promisingly and imaginatively, with the making of a lake 65 acres in extent and called The Meare. In 1911 the Country Club and also the houses along The Bunthills towards the sea, The Dunes, The Haven, and The Whinlands, were started, that is the core of the estate. At the N end of The Whinlands is the Dolphin Inn and the small shopping square. The most prominent building in this whole area is the red-brick West Bar Water Tower. After the First World War followed the houses N of the The Meare in Lakeside Avenue and The Uplands, Westgate, the Golf Club, and the Almshouses(1928, with brick centre through which the road from The Whinlands leads N). As one goes S towards Aldeburgh the Hlouse in the Clouds is the most prominent sight, another water tower, treated like a super-dovecote.

Next to this a windmill, moved here from Aldringham. She is a post-mill and was built c1803. When moved, she was given a square concrete 'round-house' with a pantiled roof and set to work to pump water into the water tower just mentioned, all the corn-grinding machinery being removed. She has an attractive hooded porch, four patent sails, and a fan-tail, but, though preserved, has not been used since the last war.

Additions of 1936-7 were the church, St Mary, by Wilson, round-arched and with a crossing tower, and The headlands, a crescent on the seafront". Some views of these follow, starting with The Meare followed by the Country Club, The Dunes, The Haven and two views of The Whinlands:
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The Golf Club, West Bar Water Tower and Almshouses:
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The House in the Clouds:
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The Windmill:
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And to conclude some other views:
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