Erith Country: Raymond Erith in the Stour Valley and Beyond - SOLD OUT
Erith Country: Raymond Erith in the Stour Valley and Beyond.
Saturday 22 July 2023
Start time/Place: 10.15 /Manningtree Station, Essex, CO11 2LH
Finish time/Place: 17.00/Manningtree Station
Alan Powers will lead a tour of the work of Raymond Erith (1904-1973) widely considered the most thoughtful architect of the modernist generation, who refused to conform to architectural fashion and instead developed his own approach to classical design.
Trained at the Architectural Association in the 1920s, he married a fellow student, Pamela Jackson, and his first major work was Great House, Dedham, Essex, 1937, for his parents-in-law. This replaced an existing house destroyed by fire in the main street of this picturesque village in Constable Country. At first sight, Erith’s design is indistinguishable from a fine provincial house of the 1820s. As with all his work, however, it is not a copy but thought through from first principles. He lived and practised in Dedham, but never lived at Great House. Instead, it passed to his daughter, Lucy, and her husband, the art historian and curator, Michael Archer. In 1985, Lucy Archer published a major study on her father’s work, and has collaborated with the Twentieth Century Society in guarding it from harmful alteration. Following Michael’s death in 2022, the house will be sold for the first time, so this is a last opportunity to see it with contents in place, including furniture designed by Erith and pictures from his collection.
The day will start with a visit to A House for Essex (exterior only), designed by Grayson Perry with FAT Architecture (Charles Holland), 2016. We then travel to Colchester to see Erith’s collaboration with another AA student, Hilda Mason, at the concrete Gothic St Andrew’s Church, Felixstowe. We will have a lunch break here and the adventurous can take a dip in the sea. We come back to Dedham via some interesting speculative small houses by Erith at East Bergholt, plus his village hall.
Train to Manningtree
09.02 Liverpool Street arr. Manningtree 10.12. Parking available at station.
10.20 Coach to Wrabness
10.40 Visit A House for Essex (exterior only)
11.00 Coach to Felixstowe
12.00 Arrive Felixstowe. Visit to St Andrew’s Church, followed by lunch (find your own or bring a picnic) and beach.
14.00 reassemble at coach,
14.30 East Bergholt, external view of houses and Constable Hall
15.00 approx. Visit Great House, Dedham (with tea included), and other buildings by Erith in Dedham.
17.19 Train from Manningtree, arrives Liverpool Street 18.15
C20 Members £ 48 Non Members £ 58
(lunch not included)
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The Twentieth Century Society is an IHBC (Institute of Historic Building conservation) recognised CPD provider.
The Twentieth Century Society is a registered charity, no 1110244
Above: A House for Essex – FAT Architecture and Grayson Perry (2015). Photograph © Jack Hobhouse