Description

TL 31NR THUNDRIDGE CAMBRIDGE ROAD
(west side)
Thundridge
2/6 Poles Convent (FCJ)
(Formerly listed under
24.1.67 Poles Lane)

II*

Country house, now a convent school. 1890-91 by Ernest George
and Peto, for Edward S Hanbury (Builders: Simpson & Son of
Paddington), short extension to service wing and new stables on
site of older stables 1913 for H H King, became a convent school
1923, tower 3-storeys courtyard linking to stables and new chapel
1934 by Walters for the convent. Red brick with blue brick
diaper, stone mullioned windows and dressings (but moulded oak
windows to the service wing) and red tiled roofs. Later
extensions in red brick and stone dressings in plainer Jacobean
style. Decorative tile-hanging to upper floor of stables. The
stables and convent extensions are all to the N of the main
house, which has a double height Great Hall facing W backing onto
the Dining Room which faces onto the garden (E). Entrance is by
a 2-storeys porch on the W into the Entrance Hall (a screens
passage) which opens into an arched Loggia on the E in the angle
with the service cross-wing on the N end. A semi-octagonal bay
window lights the middle of the Hall and there is a gallery at
the S end reached by an oak stair in a rectangular glazed bay in
the angle with the S crosswing. This has the Morning Room on the
W and the Library on the E, both with stone bay windows. 2-
storeys with additional attics in N service wing, rising to 3-
storeys with moulded wood cornice in teaching courtyard to N
around tall buttressed chapel with gallery over entrance at E
end. Formal entrance front on W with buttressed arched porch,
brick oriel window over and Dutch gable. 2-storeys mullioned and
transomed stone bay windows to the hall and stair S cross-wing
has a sculptured external chimney stack and there is a large
chimney in Renaissance style with pediment and strapwork
cartouche on the S end. The E front has an alternation of semi-
hexagonal bays with shaped gables between. 6-windows long with
large gable end windows in the projecting N crosswing. Arcaded
Loggia with stone arches on stone columns in the angle. '1890'
on lead hopper. More vernacular Arts and Crafts style treatment
of garden front of service wing at N with moulded timber
mullioned windows, door and window linked and corner sleeping
gallery with Jacobean square pillars on upper floor. Stable yard
buildings in matching materials with shaped gables, tilehung
upper floor, and labels to windows. Interior of main house very
ornate and unaltered. Oak panelling and moulded plasterwork in
entrance hall and great hall, elaborate relief plaster friezes in
entrance and great hall. Oak beamed ceiling on stone corbels in
Great Hall. Late C17 classical style panelled Morning Room with
pedimented chimney piece and doorcase and French marble columnar
fireplace enriched with ormolu. Library panelled in mahogony and
rosewood with inlaid rosewood bookcases and large carved rose
marble corbelled chimney piece in early Italian Renaissance
style. Long barrel vaulted plaster ceiling to Dining Room in
strapwork with painted panelling and Jacobean carved chimney
piece with over mantle. In kitchen to N of entrance hall a
simple black marble fireplace with cast iron inset in Japanese
Style by Barnard and Barnard. Original electric light fittings
in main rooms. An unusually complete and unaltered example of a
late C19 small country house. (VCH (1912) 379: Poles Magazine
July 1927 (privately printed)
4 - 5, 27: Pevsner (1977) 372).

Listing NGR: TL3512016289

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Hanbury Manor at Wikipedia
• Hanbury Manor official website
• Wikidata Q5646980

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)