Terracotta panels in Crampmoor Lane

Decoration in Crampmoor Lane The houses are brick built with very little ornamentation. A few of the nineteenth century houses have decorative ridge tiles and finials, but these are exceptional. Apart from Highwood House and one or two houses in Highwood Lane, the houses are built of header-bond brick with no patterning. Some of the houses are painted. Highwood House, a Victorian building, is amongst the largest houses in the area. Its gabled bays include one that is in the Dutch style. Two of the former estate cottages are decorated with terra cotta panels commemorating Florence Horatia Suckling who lived at Highwood House in the years around 1900.

Unusually for Romsey, most of the upper storeys of the houses are faced with the same materials as the ground floors. With very few exceptions, neither shiplap boards nor tile-hanging are to be found on the first floors. The sports hall at Stroud School is faced with horizontal boarding. The main part of the hall is flat-roofed but an annexe is roofed in variegated tiles.

The extensions of the Mandarin Chef have flat roofs. Some of the houses have gables or roof-lights let into the roof, often added after the house was built. Some properties have both

Chimneys in Crampmoor Lane.

Roofscape in Highwood Lane

Chimneys are almost universal in these houses and one or two of the older ones are other than plain rectangular shape. The chimney pots vary between round and square cross section and a few have decorative tops.

Lodge House at Highwood

The older houses have slate roofs. Some of the bungalows still have the diamond shaped asbestos-type tiles that were much used in the 1930s. A few houses have clay tiles, while the rest have modern red concrete tiles, some plain and some ridged. Some of the older houses have decorative ridge-tiles. The houses associated with Highwood House have decorative barge boards around the gables.

A wide variety of windows is found. They include sash windows, Georgian style casement windows, leaded light style and picture windows with their large undivided panes. Most of the older houses have replaced their original windows, some retaining the original style while others have made substantial changes.

The houses and bungalows have several styles of porches. Some of the newer houses have roofs that extend over the front door to form a sheltered area. Others have elaborate porches, either open or enclosed. Some of these are under flat roofs and others under pitched roofs. Most of the houses with no external porches have their front doors recessed, to give people protection from the weather.