Description

ST 69 SE TORTWORTH TORTWORTH PARK

1/135 Leyhill Officers' Training
School
G.V.
II*

Country house, formerly Tortworth Court, now a prison officers' training school.
1849-53 by S.S. Teulon for the 2nd Earl of Ducie. Finely coursed rubble with
Bath stone dressings and quoins; plain and fishscale tiled roof behind plain and
embattled parapets with gargoyles and heraldic beasts; clustered octagonal
ashlar and brick stacks. Irregular and asymmetrical east elevation, but a
regular south elevation, all in a Tudor Gothic style. 2 storeys, basements and
attics in gables or in gabled dormers with bargeboards. The main feature of the
east (entrance) elevation is a porte-cochere and the 3 storey entrance tower
which rises behind it: the porte-cochere has angle buttresses, moulded 4-centred
arches, embattled parapet with Ducie arms and heraldic beasts; the tower has
crested octagonal corner turrets, an embattled parapet and 3-light cross windows
with 4-centred heads, moulded mullions and surrounds. To the left of the tower
is an oriel window of 1-2-1 lights with 4-centred heads; a large gable above has
a 2-light window and a diagonal shaft base breaks the apex. To the right of the
tower is a 3 bay section of 2-light cross windows and a 4-light square bay window
and on the first floor is an oriel window; embattled parapet. Further right is
a projecting gabled wing, corbelled out corners and an oriel window with square
headed lights; single storey lobby with 4-centred doorway. In re-entrant
angle is a 4-stage stair tower with regular quoins and surmounted by an octagonal
lantern and an ogee dome; single and 3-light casements with 4-centred heads.
Dominating the whole ensemble (even more so when built as the cupola was demolished
long ago) is a square central tower; embattled parapet and three 2-light
Perpendicular style windows with plain tracery. Service wings project to the
north: 2 bays, 3- and 4-light cross windows, four 2-light windows on first
floor; to the right is a 3 stage square stair tower with a pyramidal roof;
single storey projecting wing with 1-3-1 light bay window, embattled parapet and
coped gables with twisted shaft finials. The south (garden) front is of 3 bays,
surmounted by steep coped gables with finials and heraldic beasts; embattled
parapet between. The centre bay has octagonal turrets surmounted by pierced
lanterns and ogee domes with finials; 2 storey 3-3-3 light bay window with
4-centred heads, chamfered mullions, band of quatrefoils over ground floor, and
embattled parapet; two 2-light casements with heraldry and scroll between on
first floor. Outer bays have single storey 2-3-2 light bay windows with Ducie
arms over; two 2-light cross windows with 4-centred heads on first floor and 3-
light casements on the gables. Interior. Lobby: rib vaulted ceiling with
central panel bearing date '1850'; ogee headed niches to corners; Gothic style
screen doors. Gothic style panelled doors in moulded surrounds with 4-centred
heads and framed ceilings to most ground floor rooms. Library (Dining Room)
moulded Tudor style fireplace with roses in spandrels and ceiling with corbels
and carved bosses. Staircase hall: large open well staircase with Perpendicular
style balustrade, panelled and crested newel posts, supported on large corbelled
and panelled brackets; galleries to first and second floors; panelled ceiling
with carved bosses. Common Room (Drawing Room): painted Tudor style fireplace
with quatrefoil frieze; painted and gilded ceiling with stencilled panels
bearing Ducie crest; large Perpendicular style panelled doors to Games Room.
Games Room (Library): Gothic style bookshelves; painted, gilded and stencilled
panelled ceiling; two very fine fireplaces of 3 bays with brass,twisted
colonettes and arches, decorative tiles to outer bays; 4-bay overmantel of
twisted colonettes and brass leaf capitals; the room is divided by an arcade
with a central large and 2 small, painted and gilded 4-centred arches. Board
Room (the Earl's room): elaborately detailed Renaissance style fireplace with
Ducie heraldry. Lecture Hall (Morning Room): linefold panelling and elaborately
detailed Jacobean style fireplace; enriched ceiling and frieze, pendants and
intersecting motifs. Tortworth Court is one of Teulon's most important and
early houses handled in a mixture of picturesque and Puginesque ways. It was
one of the first houses to be equipped with gas lighting throughout and a hot air
central heating system. A central railway in the servant's wing, carried coal
to a lift for distribution. (The Builder, 29.10.1853 and 19.11.1853; Country
Life, 13.5.1899; Girouard M, The Victorian Country House, 1979).

Listing NGR: ST6933192514

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Tortworth Court at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7827382

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.

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