Burys Court and attached walled garden, Leigh, Surrey

Description

1896/0/10040

LEIGH
FLANCHFORD ROAD
Burys Court and attached walled garden

18-MAR-11

II
Country house, now school. Built in 1876 in Neo-Jacobean style for Edward and Georgina Charrington, of the Charrington brewing firm. The architect is not known at the time of listing.

MATERIALS: mainly red brick with some grey brick diaper work and Bath stone dressings, but with timber framing and decorative plasterwork to the south-east elevation. The tiled roof has a number of clustered tall brick chimneystacks. The fenestration is irregular with mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements.

PLAN: roughly L-shaped in plan, mainly of two storeys and attics, with principal rooms to the south west, attached projecting service courtyard to the north east and attached rectangular walled garden to the east.

EXTERIOR: the north-west or entrance front has principal rooms on the west side and the service end to the east. This front is asymmetrical and the principal feature is a full-height projecting entrance porch embellished with a stepped gable with cartouche, flanked by obelisks and with elaborate offset buttresses. It has a three-light casement to the upper floors, with pediment to the attic window. The round-headed arched doorcase has an enriched keystone, is dated 1876 on shields in the spandrels and has double doors with strapwork motifs. The attic storey has two dormers with curved gables with mini-obelisks and ball finials. To the left is a projecting two-storey bay under a curved gable. To the left is the projecting two-storey service wing which has an external brick chimneystack and pedimented semi-dormer to the south-western return. On the north-west side are four gables and a further external chimneystack.

The northern end of the south-west side is of red brick with a moulded brick chimneystack, which separates on the ground floor each side of an opening. However the southern part is of timber-framing with plastered infill and includes high-relief pargetting between the ground and first floors. There are two gabled dormers with pendants.

The south-east or garden front projects to the west, where the principal rooms are situated, and is of five bays, comprising three two-storey canted bays divided by smaller casement windows. This section is also timber-framed with plastered infill, and includes a high relief plasterwork band. The plasterwork to the central canted bay features sunflowers, the Charrington shield and armorial devices. The side canted bays have phoenixes bearing cartouches with the respective initials of the owners, EC and GC, and the date 1876, flanked by side panels with sunflower motifs. There are three gabled dormers with pendants. The north western return has an external brick chimneystack with an attached entrance with ribbed plank door. The eastern side of the south-west elevation is set back with a gable and external chimneystack with diaperwork and sundial to the first floor. The sundial bears the Latin motto 'SOL LUCIS FRUCUMQUE PARENS SOL ARBITER ANNI.'

WALLED GARDEN: attached to the north-east of the garden front is a tall wall of diaper brickwork attached to a rectangular-shaped walled garden in English bond brickwork. This incorporates a pedestrian entrance on the north-west side with brick gatepiers surmounted by stone ball finials and an elaborate wrought iron gate incorporating the letter 'E' and a swan.

INTERIOR: the staircase-hall has a strapwork design plastered ceiling and full-height plank and muntin panelling with bracket cornice, frieze of lozenges, fluted pilasters and a stone fireplace with Atlantes. A series of nine-panelled oak doors lead off from this room. The staircase has turned balusters and chamfered newel posts with urn finials and an upstairs gallery. The large staircase window has coloured marginal glazing and hexagonal panes. Edward Charrington's study (currently a staff room) has an ovolo-moulded cornice and a large segmental recess incorporating a central carved stone fireplace with end balusters, decorated spandrels and tiled interior, flanked by two round-headed niches. The dining room has a stone fireplace with elaborate triglyph decoration, Ionic balusters and figurative tiles. Thee is panelling to plate-shelf level with lozenge pattern decoration above the fireplace. Above the plate-shelf is later C19 wallpaper decorated with cherubs and swags. The wooden window shutters survive. The music room, possibly the drawing room originally, has an elaborate plaster cornice, stained glass to the upper part of the windows and a fireplace with side balusters and floral tiles. A room to the north-west, possibly a morning room originally, has an arched alcove and a marble fireplace with blue floral tiles. The service wing retains a set of servants' bells to the corridor, the kitchen retains a large open fireplace and some C19 shelving and the larder retains slate shelves. Some service rooms retain simple fireplaces. On the first floor the plastered ceiling above the main staircase was replaced in the late C20 but an adjoining room retains a plastered ceiling and there are some bolection-moulded fireplaces, one of which is marble-lined with blue floral-patterned tiles. Narrower staircases lead to the attics.

SOURCES: History of Burys Court on http://.buryscourtschool.co.uk/history/index.html Accessed 24/11/2009.
Information about Edward Charrington on http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid+22171 Accessed 24/11/2009.

History

Burys Court was built in 1876 as a residence for Edward and Georgina Charrington of the Charrington brewing firm founded circa 1766. Edward Charrington was a member of the firm for fifty seven years and a supporter of philanthropy in the east end of London. His wife was a Swiss national. There is currently no information about the architect of Burys Court and it is possible that an architect associated with the brewery could have been responsible. It is thought locally that the front elevation was designed by Edward Charrington himself in a Neo-Jacobean style but that his wife designed the garden front in 'Swiss Chalet' style but this seems unlikely because the garden front in not in a Swiss Chalet style but has Neo-Jacobean style carving and elaborate pargetting derived from East Anglian vernacular influences. Edward Charrington died at Burys Court in 1888. The building is first shown on the 1896 Ordnance Survey map and the outline is little altered from the present day except for a later extension on the north-east side.

In 1930 the Charrington family leased the building to a Miss Sheard, who founded Bury's Court Girls' School here, but it was then occupied by Lloyd's insurance before becoming a hotel in 1946. In 1952 the Charrington family sold Burys Court and it became Burys Court Preparatory School for Boys. It has changed ownership since but has remained in educational use

Reasons for Listing

Burys Court is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural merit: a Neo-Jacobean style country house constructed in a variety of good quality materials, with well-articulated elevations.
* Interiors: good quality interiors, including joinery, stone or marble fireplaces with some tiled interiors, plastered ceilings, stained glass windows and some original late C19 wallpaper.
* Intactness: both the exterior and interior are little altered.
* Ensemble interest: An attached garden wall of diaper brickwork, and rectangular walled garden with decorative gatepiers and gate contributes to the special interest of the whole.

External Links

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