Kineton, one of the first houses built in Holly Bank Road

Kineton - since replaced by 2 houses - was one of the first two houses built in Holly Bank Road in 1910. The first owner was Mr Hugh Crompton Bischoff, who had previously lived in Mount Hermon Road, and lived at Kineton until 1934. It is not certain whether he had the house designed for him or whether he bought it in the open market. The house was sold in 1934 by Messrs Mercer, 7 Sackville St, London, and in 1935 a Mrs Matthews is advertising for two housemaids to cater for their household of two persons. The owner in 1955 and 1957 was Francis Stanley Bassett, a member of the Stock Exchange, and director of Limit Engineering Group.

Walter Tarrant, the builder

The house was built and designed by Walter Tarrant of Byfleet, who proudly described his career in a brochure of 1920 as having moved from carpenter and joiner, to small builder, to large estate developer and speculative builder, to government contractor. He started building in West Byfleet and Pyrford by 1900 and built Hembury Knowle and Homewood, as well as Kineton, on Hook Heath, before concentrating on developing the Hockering and St George's Hill. During WW1 he started to make portable wooden buildings and after the war developed this line into building smaller wooden and brick houses for local authorities in Woking and Guildford, while keeping up development on St George's Hill. Here, however, the recession meant the firm closed in 1931 and although some renewal occurred from 1935 he moved in 1940 to Wales, where he died in 1942.

The plot in Holly Bank Road

Kineton occupied the largest plot in Holly Bank Road. It was a stately L-shaped building of brick very much typical of the `Surrey style' of large houses of which Lutyens and Voysey were the best-known architects. With its modest gabled windows and well-proportioned porch it fits comfortably into the wooded surroundings of its garden and of the rest of the road, where many of the later buildings have also been sympathetically designed.

The listing of Kineton

While not in a Conservation Area, it was listed by Woking Borough Council as being one of only three houses in the road of such a nature as to make it a house having Townscape Merit. It was later knocked down and replaced by 2 houses.

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