The architects Peter & Beryl Harrison, a husband and wife team, designed the house for a sea captain, J.M. Hulsken and his wife, an arboroculturist as somewhere to retire. They left a Victorian house, which they considered too much work to maintain, to build this in a style that was greatly inspired by the sort of Scandinavian architecture that Mr. Hulsken encountered on his travels. He was also inspired by the practical, yet elegant, designs of many of the ships that he had worked on (indeed the house is named after one of these vessels) whilst his wife wanted generous views of the gardens and the mature trees that it contained.

In a book of ‘Architect-designed homes and speculatively built properties’, published in 1968, the house at Maresfield was given a double page spread. The author writes of a house that “is ‘modern’ in the best sense… on a delightful site”. They praise the “use of natural material” and state that “the preponderance of timber and uncovered brickwork produce an air of simplicity”. They also point out the use of double glazing and cavity wall insulation – both rare at the time. The book, displaying some original photography, is illustrated above.