Country Life Illustrated, 1898-02-19: Vol 3 Iss 59, p.196
and The Orchard number 11, p.69

Description on Historic England (Images of England)

BISHOPS ITCHINGTON STATION ROAD SP35NE (East side) The Cottage 5/3 15/03/83 - II* House. 1888 and 1900 by C.F.A. Voysey, for M.H. Lakin. Roughcast brick. Concrete tile hipped roof has gables to rear and curved iron gutter brackets throughout; roughcast ridge stacks. U-plan, with wings to rear. Arts and Crafts style. 2 storeys; 6-window range. Garden front, originally entrance front has porch with battered walls and leaded lights, but no door. Leaded glazed door inside. Plain leaded painted wood mullioned windows throughout, some with tile and roughcast drip moulds. Ground floor has 5- and 3-light windows, recessed between buttresses. Large 7-light hall window to left of porch, and smaller, 6-, 2- and 3-light windows to right have transoms. 4 shallow hipped half-dormers breaking just above eaves have large 3-light windows. 2 small 2-light windows on right. Low 3-bay loggia attached at right angles on right. Left return side altered and enlarged as entrance front 1900. Four-window range. Large low projection on right has 11-light window and hipped roof. Half-glazed door in angle, of 2 x 3 panels, with adjoining single light linked to 4-light window. Large 4-light window on left. First floor has 2 more 3-light half-dormers on left, and small 4- and 3-light windows. Right return side is an irregular 4-window range. To rear: central bay window of 5 x 2 lights projects from gallery with lean-to roof. 5 and 3-light windows to left. Gabled projection in right angle, adjoining bay window, has 3-light window. 3-sided bay window with steep roof in angle between projection and right wing. Small 4-light window above. Left wing has 3-light first floor window. Right return side has half-glazed door, 3-light window, and 2 first-floor lights. Right wing has single ground floor window. Interior: entrance hall, formerly gallery, has straight flight staircase with stick balusters and moulded handrail. Brick paved floor. Window has small panels of painted glass, of ships and horsemen respectively, possibly C17 Flemish. Room to right has simple fireplace with moulded shelf and curved lining of thin bricks laid on end. Former hall has plain ceiling beams Open fireplace has moulded shelf. Fireplace of brick and edge-laid tiles has arched openings. Wide plank and batten doors with strap hinges. Scrolled twisted rod window catches. Cupboards have heart-shaped escutcheons. The Cottage is Voysey's first completed building. (Buildings of England: Warwickshire, p.214; J. Brandon-Jones et al: C.F.A. Voysey; architect and designer pp.33 and 38).

Pevsner's Warwickshire (with Chris Pickford, 2016) says:

THE COTTAGE, ... By Voysey for M.H. Lakin, a proprietor of the cement quarries, 1888. Enlarged in 1900 when two wings were added. W porch 1982. The original main entrance was on the S side. The older part is Voysey’s first country house, but his hallmark style is already fully developed. Roughcast, with varied fronts, decorative buttresses with much batter, a big, comfortable roof, and horizontal windows in the Jacobean tradition. The principal rooms are the central entrance hall, entered by an off-centre S porch; the main window is in the middle instead. In the rear courtyard, a kind of gallery with a square bay and plenty of window.

Voysey's original scheme also included the layout of the gardens.

Source: Pevsner Architectural Guides at Yale University Press.

Link > www.voyseysociety.org