Littlecroft

New house built for Morton Kelsall Peto, artist, son of Sir Samuel Morton Peto, contractor for railways and public works and Sarah Ainsworth, eldest daughter of Henry Kelsall of Rochdale, textile manufacturer and leading Baptist layman.The Building News, November 1st 1884: “Littlecroft is a house and studio now building in the New Forest for Mr. Morton K. Peto. The external quarterings is of oak with parquet filling-in. The slope of the ground is take advantage of so that an extra room is obtained in the height of the main gable, a boudoir being arranged on the first landing and above the porch. The oak staircase is worked in a square space behind posts and arches and can be screened by curtains from the hall, which latter is arranged to form an additional room to the house. The studio has an open roof and gallery and one end. The dining-room has an ingle behind an oak arch; overhead the beans are shownm and a ceiling of wood panell with mitred mouldings.”The Revival of English Domestic Architecture. V. The Work of Mr. Ernest George (1896):Littlecroft, New Forest (Morton Peto, Esq.), has been the subject of many illustrations in The British Architect (Dec. 17, 1886); admirers of Messrs. George & Peto's work should refer to the details of this charming house, where not merely the structural features have been sketched by Mr. T. Raffles Davidson, but a sundial, a lantern, even a pair of snuffers finds a record.