Winchester Road and its offshoots

The level ground along Winchester Road has a series of large houses set back in their own grounds. There is no common building line and the houses are of varying ages. On the north side of the road there are fifteen houses whose grounds face the road, as well as some built behind others. These houses were built at different times over the course of the last century or before. They are principally brick-built two-storey houses of widely differing styles. They are difficult to see from the road as they are screened by hedges and bushes.

There are three groups of building to the north-west of Winchester Road. The oldest of these is Bow Lane, a collection of nine homes, including three substantial houses, two pairs of semi-detached houses and two bungalows.

Bow Lane (Arts & Crafts Design)

One pair of semi-detached houses bears the hallmarks of the Arts and Crafts movement. This matching pair of houses is built of red bricks. The front doors are between the bays and behind substantial porches under the catslide main roof and below dormer windows.

Further along Winchester Road, there are two more small groups of houses on the north. Windfield Drive consists of six substantial houses built in the last twenty years. They are double fronted, with deep bays under gable roofs. They are built of grey bricks but with red bricks used as decoration especially around the windows. They have elaborate porches under gable roofs and integral garages.

Deansfield Close on the southern side of Winchester Road is another example of backland development where a large single plot has been divided to make way for six houses. Although primarily brick built, the two houses that face up the close have white rendering on their upper storeys that makes them very conspicuous even from Winchester Road.

The Crescent

The Crescent is a very mixed development. The common feature is that all the properties are detached in their own grounds. Beyond that the sheer variety of styles is remarkable. Some of the houses are constructed of rich red bricks and date back to late Victorian and early Edwardian times. Some of these are double fronted with bow windows.

The Crescent

The Crescent, garages below houses

There are several bungalows built in a red brick that was popular as a material in the 1960s when they were built. One bungalow is rendered in pebble dash, another partly rendered in white. At the bottom of the hill there are six double fronted houses built in the late twentieth century. Opposite them are four houses, reached up steps with balconies over projecting garages. Because the garages are on the ground floor level, the front doors are on the first floor. There is a similar pair of bungalows in Cupernham Lane, where the living accommodation is above the garage. The Cupernham Lane pair have a wall faced with stone between their steps.

The two most striking houses in The Crescent are at either end of the entrances. One has a plaque dating it to 1885 and it is notable for its soaring chimneys. It lies well back from the road and cannot easily be seen from the public highway apart from its substantial gable roofed porch supported on decorative white painted wooden pillars. It has attractive dormer windows, has many gables and the various ends of the roofs are highlighted with ornamental finials.

Porch with decorative pillars

Victorian Villa with decorative tiles

At the eastern end of The Crescent there is another Victorian villa, the notable feature of which is the terracotta and tile decoration. Many of its original windows have been replaced with plain panes of glass, although some of the Victorian fenestration is still apparent.

Woodley Lane

There is a small group of four houses between Fairview Drive and Ashley Meadows. Three of these were built in the early 1920s. One of them has very attractive bricks laid alternately header and stretcher in each course, Flemish bond. There are curved brick arches above the windows with three tiles at the apex. Within these arches are decorative lozenges. The house has retained its original front door.

1920s house in Woodley Lane

Next door to this house is a pair of semi-detached properties. They are brick downstairs but white painted roughcast finish upstairs. Each house has a bay that runs up to a gable at roof level. Both above the doors and below the gables, there is a decorative course consisting of wood dentilation.

Woodley Lane Bungalow

The bungalows that line the hillside opposite all have complex shapes. Some are L-shaped, but others form an h-shape or a more elaborate footprint. Although they were built around the same time, they have subsequently been extended in different ways. However they have mostly remained as bungalows and have not been converted into houses or chalet-style bungalows as has happened in some parts of Romsey.

Originally they were all faced with red brick, but their extensions have introduced a variety of finishes including stained weather boarding on the gables of one and render on the street face on a wing on another.

In a similar way, the bungalows along the eastern side of the level stretch of the road have been altered and modernised. Their extensions are often to the rear, so that there is less obvious change in shape than has taken place on the hill side. Some of these bungalows still have original diamond shaped roofing material, and one has similar material on a side wall.

Bungalow with diamond roof tiles

Tied cottages before alterations

North of the bungalows is a pair of cottages at right-angles to the road, that were originally built as tied cottages. They are red brick with slate roofs. Beyond them are four more dwellings, two of which are chalet-style with interlocking tiles and tile-hanging on the upper storeys.

End cottage after alterations

Extended 19th Century house

On the western side of Woodley Lane, the change in road level marks a change in housing style. Once the road levels off, bungalows give way to Durban House and a variety of housing, apparently built on two different building lines. The houses differ from each other in appearance and age. Part of a bungalow is faced with barge boards which is an uncommon feature in this part of Romsey.

Two modern houses are decorated with hung tiles below have pantile roofs. They were built in the grounds of a former coal yard that belonged to the adjacent Victorian house. As is common throughout upper Cupernham and Winchester Road, these houses all have chimneys, although not particularly remarkable in style.