Period detail in a railway village
Hassocks has several building periods side by side, and that shapes what suits a room. Near the station, the townscape appraisal describes imposing Victorian villas and large semis in Stanford Avenue with highly decorative wooden detailing and stained glass around the doors. Woodfield Road has two and three storey Victorian villas beside the railway, and Parklands Road has Victorian terraces with sash bays. In houses of that age, a deeper cornice and a ceiling rose often belong in the front rooms, and where the original has been lost to a replaced ceiling, a fibrous plaster profile can bring the period back.
Arts and Crafts houses and the 1930s estate
Hassocks also has a strong early twentieth century streak. Near Stonepound Crossroads, Hurst Road has early twentieth century detached houses in the Arts and Crafts style, some designed by the architect J. L. Denman, and the village design statement records individual houses by the local architect Harold Turner in Clayton Avenue and Keymer Road. The appraisal sees Arts and Crafts influence right across the village, from large villas to modest cottages and the London Road council houses of the 1920s. Rooms in houses like these usually look best with simpler, cleaner profiles than a Victorian parlour: a plain or gently stepped cornice, or a modest cove. The 1930s Home Estate and the 1950s houses on Dale Avenue suit restrained profiles too, and a standard 127mm cove is often right in a smaller bedroom.
Fitting it properly
Good mouldings depend on the ceiling and walls being right first. If a ceiling still has an old textured finish, it is usually plastered flat before any cornice goes up; see plastering over Artex in Hassocks. If the walls are being replastered anyway, the cornice is planned in from the start, so the finish and the mouldings are one job, as our plastering and skimming in Hassocks page explains. On the day, mitres are cut to meet cleanly in the corners, runs are kept straight even where a ceiling dips, and every joint is filled and lightly rubbed down so it disappears under paint.
Panelling, roses and features
Beyond cove and cornice, we fit panel mouldings and dado rails, friezes, ceiling roses, corbels, niches, columns, arches and fire surrounds. Panel mouldings are a good way to give a hallway or bedroom in a newer house, such as those at Clayton Mills, some character without changing the structure of the room. In an older house, a fire surround or a pair of corbels under a widened opening can tie a modern open-plan layout back to the age of the building. Fibrous plaster, cast plaster reinforced with fibre, is strong for its weight and takes paint well, so a new rose or corbel can be decorated to match the ceiling around it.
Listed and older buildings
Hassocks parish includes a number of listed buildings, from St John the Baptist's Church at Clayton, listed Grade I, to Ockley Manor and Clayton Priory. If your home is listed, its original plasterwork is part of what is protected, so speak to Mid Sussex District Council before removing or replacing a cornice. For our full range, see our main coving, cornice and mouldings page and our Hassocks area page.
