Crowhurst Place

The origins of Crowhurst Place are those of a traditional hall house of the early 15th century. It was built for the Gaynesfords, a family of wealthy yeomen. Ian Nairn, Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry, in the 1971 revised Surrey Pevsner Buildings of England, give a construction date of circa. 1425. In the early 20th century, the estate was bought by George A. Crawley, a decorator and designer rather than a trained architect, who developed a small, but successful practice in reconstructing traditional buildings in a Tudor Revival style. Working firstly for himself, and subsequently for Consuelo Vanderbilt, Crawley greatly expanded the original medieval hall house. The result, "remarkable…