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Norman Evill
Nymans, West Sussex, a country house rebuilt by Evill and Walter Tapper
Born	1873
Died	5 August 1958 (aged 84-85)
Occupation	Architect
Parent	Walter Evill
Buildings	Nymans Shirenewton Hall

Norman Adolphus Evill FRIBA (1873 – 5 August 1958) was an English architect and draughtsman, apprenticed to Edwin Lutyens.

Life and works

Evill was born in the village of Hewelsfield, Gloucestershire, in 1873. His father, Walter, was also an architect, who undertook much work in the nearby town of Chepstow. Evill was apprenticed to Edwin Lutyens as a draughtsman in 1899, later recording that he observed, and tried to learn, Lutyens' ability to see "in the round". Evill worked at Lutyens' office in Bloomsbury Square for three years.

Establishing his own architectural and drawing practice in the early twentieth century, Evill undertook a range of work, often restorations and re-buildings, rather than entirely new works. These include the re-building and extension of Nymans Manor in West Sussex, although Evill was replaced by Walter Tapper after a disagreement with the owner, Leonard Messel. Clive Aslet, the architectural writer, describes the combined result as "a Victorian house transformed into a medieval romance". Evill also built a row of cottages on the Nymans estate. Other works in the South of England included a garden house, and internal refurbishment, at Bratton, Wiltshire, and classrooms and a chapel at Ashdown House School, East Sussex, where his cousin was headmaster. For the inhabitants of the Hampshire village of Silchester, he designed a village hall which was redeveloped in the early 21st century. He undertook other work in Silchester, including large extensions to Silchester House, and two smaller houses, the Grange and High Timbers, now Romans Hotel. Bullen, Crook, Hubbuck and Pevsner, in their Hampshire: Winchester and the North volume of the Buildings of England series, describe Romans as being "in his master's Surrey style". In London, Evill restored Park House at Hampton Court Palace, and undertook the conversion of a coach house in the garden of his own home on Church Row, Hampstead. Renamed 24 Perrins Walk, the coach house later became the home of the comedian Peter Cook.

Work in the West and Wales included the reconstruction of Shirenewton Hall in Monmouthshire, and a house, Ivy Rock, at Tidenham, Gloucestershire. In the North, Nevill built Barn Close, Carlisle for the architect and industrialist Edwin Scott-Nicholson. Hyde and Pevsner, in their Cumbria volume of the Buildings of England, note the Arts and Crafts design of the house, a style that Evill favoured.

Evill died in 1958.

Notes

1. He was baptised at Hewelsfield on 12 October 1873. Some sources incorrectly give his year of birth as 1874.
2. Christopher Hussey contributed to the fantasy by writing a spoof article on the transformed house for Country Life.
3. Park House was the home of W. E. Johns, the author of the Biggles stories, from 1953 until his death in 1968.

References

1. Gloucestershire Church of England Parish Registers: Hewelsfied
2. "Norman Evill (1874–1958) 'Nymans, Handcross, Sussex' An architectural study for the early 20th century". The Saleroom.com. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
3. ^ "Norman Adolphus Evill 1873–1958". Artist Biographies. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
4. Newman 2000, p. 67.
5. ^ Hussey 1989, p. 161.
6. Historic England. "Nymans – Park and garden (Grade II*) (1000160)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
7. "The architecture of Nymans". National Trust. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
8. Aslet 1982, p. 166.
9. Aslet 1982, p. 325.
10. "Chodds Cottages in Handcross High Street". The Slaugham Archives. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
11. Historic England. "Bratton House (1036520)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
12. "Bratton House" (PDF). Bratton Archive. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
13. Fazio & Snadon 2006, p. 721.
14. Gartside, Lorna. "Visit to Ashdown House". The Sussex Archaeological Society. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
15. "Silchester Conservation Area Appraisal" (PDF). Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council. April 2004.
16. "Silchester Village Hall Development Proposal" (PDF). Silchester Village Hall Board of Trustees. 2 November 2010.
17. Bullen et al. 2010, p. 483.
18. "Captain W. E. Johns". The Twickenham Museum. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
19. "Park House, Hampton Court, and its restoration by Mr. Norman Evill". Country Life. 20 March 1926.
20. Historic England. "24, Perrins Walk (1139056)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
21. Ivey, Prudence (15 December 2014). "Queen Anne House with Peter Cook Connection is Classic Hampstead". Hampstead & Highgate Express.
22. "House for sale in Perrins Walk, London, NW3". Dexters. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
23. Bennett, Steve. "For sale: Peter Cook's London house". Chortle – The UK Comedy Guide. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
24. Cadw. "Shirenewton Hall (Grade II) (2818)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
25. Verey & Brooks 2002, p. 763.
26. Kirkwood, Holly (23 August 2010). "Classic Lutyens house in Gloucestershire for sale". Country Life.
27. "Barn Close and the Evolution of the Arts and Crafts House". The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. 9 December 2020.
28. Hyde & Pevsner 2010, p. 266.

Sources

• Aslet, Clive (1982). The Last Country Houses. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-02904-7.
• Bullen, Michael; Crook, John; Hubbuck, Rodney; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010). Hampshire: Winchester and the North. The Buildings of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12084-4. OCLC 1023298301.
• Fazio, Michael; Snadon, Patrick Alexander (2006). The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780801881046.
• Hussey, Christopher (1989) . The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club. ISBN 978-0-907462-59-0.
• Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010). Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness. The Buildings of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12663-1. OCLC 846117723.
• Newman, John (2000). Gwent/Monmouthshire. The Buildings of Wales. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-071053-1.
• Verey, David; Brooks, Alan (2002) . Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and the Forest of Dean. The Buildings of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09733-6.

• 1873 births
• 1958 deaths
• Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects
• 20th-century English architects
• People from Forest of Dean District
• Arts and Crafts architects
• Artists' Rifles soldiers