Construction Lutyens built Marshcourt for Herbert "Johnnie" Johnson, a trader/stockjobber on the
London Stock Exchange, where he had accumulated a fortune of half a million pounds. He bought a hillside site overlooking the
River Test (on a ridge above a much older manor house in the valley bottom, Marsh Court Manor), and approached Lutyens after seeing his work portrayed in
Country Life. They became lifelong friends. The house was built on the hillside, out of locally quarried chalk cut as
ashlar, known as
clunch. Lutyens interspersed pieces of black flint and red tiles in the masonry. The exterior design of the house is
Tudor, with
mullioned and
transomed windows, and twisted brick chimneys. The north, entrance front on the higher ground is two-storey, The oak-panelled hall features two
friezes carved in chalk, with classical
festoons. The dining room is panelled in walnut
veneer. Ceilings have highly decorative plasterwork. There are chalk fireplaces and even a chalk
billiard table.
Wartime use In the
First World War, Marshcourt became a 60-bed military hospital, run by Johnson's wife, a local widow who had been known as Violet Meeking before their marriage in 1912, and had been born Violet Fletcher. She also ran a military hospital in Stockbridge. In 1919, Herbert Johnson instigated the construction of the Grade II listed
Stockbridge War Memorial, designed by Lutyens and unveiled in 1921 by Violet Johnson, Violet Charlotte Johnson was awarded an
MBE, for her services in the care of wounded soldiers, but died in 1921. Lutyens designed her Grade II listed memorial in Winton Hill cemetery, Stockbridge.
Later years In 1924–6, Lutyens added a
ballroom to the southeast corner of the house, in the same architectural style. In 1932, after falling on hard times Johnson sold Marshcourt for £60,000, having paid £150,000 originally. It later became a
preparatory school, known as Marsh Court School. ==Gardens==