Little Thakeham

Little Thakeham is an Arts and Crafts style, Grade I listed private house in the parish of Thakeham, near the village of Storrington, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. Designed by architect Edwin Lutyens in 1902, the house was one of the first in which Lutyens mixed neoclassical architecture into his previously vernacular style. The exterior of the house is vernacular, but the interior has classical features, particularly in its large hall. The gardens, also designed by Lutyens, are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Lutyens' client was Ernest Blackburn, formerly the headmaster of a preparatory school in Southborough, Kent, who had retired on receiving an inheritance from his father, a wine merchant. His main interest was gardening. Over 1901–2 he made a series of land purchases, creating an estate of 130 acres , and devoted himself to landscaping it. He commissioned the architect F. Hatchard Smith to build a house on the site, but by April 1902 Blackburn was dissatisfied with the half-built brick villa. He brought in Lutyens, who advised him to demolish it, which he did. Hatchard Smith accused Lutyens of poaching his client, and the dispute was played out in the pages of Building News, which supported Hatchard Smith, and Country Life, which supported Lutyens.

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