Description

SS 91 NW STOODLEIGH

9/160 Ravenswood School
-

GV II*

Country house in use as school. Built as Stoodleigh Court in 1883 by Sir Ernest
George and H E Peto for T Carew Daniel (Girouard). Stone rubble with Ham Hill
dressings, some tile-hung and timber frame gables; red tile roof with some concrete
tile replacement; stacks with tall stone shafts. Free mixture of Elizabethan and Old
English style.
Plan: Principal rooms in the east range to the left, lesser rooms in the west wing
forming an L plan; service rooms arranged around a service courtyard behind the west
wing adjoining at the right (west). The east range has an approximately central
porch on the north side which leads into a 2 storey open hall to the left, the
principal stair rising within the hall at the right end with a gallery leading to the
master bedrooms. Library to left of hall; morning room and drawing room to the rear
of the hall overlooking the gardens to the south. To the right of the porch an axial
corridor against the front wall gives access to the dining room and billiard room
behind, nursery accommodation above on first floor. The west wing rooms are smaller
and appear to be offices and service rooms on the ground floor with guest
accommodation above. Kitchen and further service rooms to the right arranged round a
rectanglar service yard which has been roofed over in the 1980s. The house is said
to have been designed for electric light, which is advanced for the date, with its
own generator; ornamental radiators and cast iron pipes suggest that the central
heating system was integral to the design. There has been little alteration to the
fabric beyond repartitioning the morning and drawing rooms and the roofing over of
the service yard.
Exterior: 2 storeys and attic, designed to look like an evolved house, most of the
windows stone mullioned with square leaded panes but varied by timber framed and
tile-hung gables and some timber casements. Long asymmetrical entrance (north)
elevation to the east range with an approximately central 3-storey gabled entrance
porch, the buttressed open hall to the left with a projecting polygonal hall bay; to
the right of the porch 2 timber-framed gables to the front and a 2-storey lean-to.
Porch with segmental stone doorway, below 2 tiers of stone mullioned windows; three
4-light hall windows each with 2 transoms; fine hall bay with parapet entirely glazed
with tall mullioned windows with 4 transoms; mullioned windows to left of hall and
right of porch. Single-storey polygonal butler's passage in angle between east range
and west wing with series of mullioned windows. The 8-bay west wing has 3 gables to
the front and a segmental arched carriage entrance to right of centre giving access
to the former service block; stone mullioned and transomed windows throughout.
The garden elevation of the south range is asymmetrical with 3 gables to the front
and a gabled projection approximately in the centre providing a drawing room bay and
a more shallow projection at the right end; painted sundial on front. Tile-hung
gables associated with the service rooms and offices. The exterior is very unaltered
except for some of the leaded pane glazing which has been replaced in a small number
of windows.
Interior: very complete. Entrance from porch into small panelled room which gives
access to the 5-bay great hall with queen strut collar and tie beam roof trusses with
curved braces and wind braces. Massive ashlar hooded chimneypiece; tall panelled
dado with frieze of carved heads. Fine stair at right end of hall with Jacobean
balusters and carved gryphon finials. The stair leads to a gallery overlooking the
hall in the rear wall with 3 segmental arched openings; timber corner oriel projects
into the hall from the gallery. Elaborate wrought iron and brass light fittings
above the dado frieze may be original. The L-shaped drawing room has a fine
ornamental plaster ceiling with moulded ribs and Renaissance details of arabesques
and grotesques; co-eval carved chimneypiece. Panelled morning room, sub-divided in
the C20 with a C20 chimneypiece. The library preserves an original chimneypiece and
bookcase fittings. Other notable survivals are a complete set of veneered fitted
cupboards and drawers to the master bedroom; joinery and door and window furniture;
many original chimneypieces; wall friezes in the nursery rooms and timber fitted
cupboards, dressers and a desk in the secondary and service rooms.
Ground plan and entrance elevation published in Building News, July 13, 1883: some
variations between published elevation and existing details of west wing.

Listing NGR: SS9169418675

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548113

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)