Description

HALFWAY ROAD
1.
5282
(West Side)
Minster-on-Sea, Sheerness
Sheppey Court
TQ 97 SW 12/153

II

House, later converted to nursing home. Early C19, built for Sir Edward Banks (1770-1835). Greek Revival style. The 1968 extension attached to the west is not of special interest.

BUILDING MATERIALS: Stuccoed with incised lines to imitate masonry on stuccoed plinth. Shallow pitched slate roof.

PLAN: Almost rectangular building of two storeys; three bays to east entrance front and seven bays to north and south sides.

EXTERIOR: The eastern entrance front has six-pane sash windows to the first floor, except for the central window, replaced by two narrow sashes in the C20. The ground floor has tall 12-pane French windows either side of a shallow Doric porch "in antis". The north and south sides have have seven bays, the eastern end bay to both sides projecting slightly. Both have six-pane sashes to the upper floor and twelve-pane sashes to the ground floor. Many windows are original but some ground floor windows on the south side have been blocked later and many ground floor cills replaced in concrete. The third bay from the eastern end on the north side has a Greek Revival doorcase with cornice and pilasters.

INTERIOR: Original fittings remain in the eastern three bays. The eastern ground floor bay comprises one large reception room the full width of the building, probably originally two rooms with a narrrow central passageway between. This room contains a narrow moulded cornice, deep skirting board and window shutters. Against the western wall of the northern part of the room is an early C19 marble fireplace with anthemion motif in the upper corners, reeding and cast iron firegrate. Against the western wall of the southern part of the room is a plainer marble fireplace with paterae and cast iron firegrate. Doorcases in the eastern part of the building have moulded architraves and four fielded panels. To the east of the large reception room is a staircase-hall with well staircase, the lowest five treads turning a quarter circle. There are two stick balusters to each tread, scrolled tread ends and plain cylindrical newel posts. The landing has a section of curved balustrading. Beside this is a cambered arch with pilasters.

HISTORY: Sheppey Court was built by Sir Edward Banks as a country retreat. His London house was in Adelphi Terrace, Westminster and he had country properties at Oxney Court near Dover and Sheppey Court. Banks was an important builder and contractor who had already worked on several canals, tram roads and turnpikes by 1807 when, with his partner the Rev William John Jolliffe, the firm became perhaps the largest contractor of the time for undertaking the engineering of public works. With John Rennie the firm carried out projects in the London Docks, Waterloo Bridge, Southwark Bridge and London Bridge. Jolliffe and Banks were also, with Nicholson of Rochester, employed in a series of excavation, piling and walling contracts for Rennie's Sheerness naval dockyard (1812-1830), a £3 million work designed for "the building and equipment of ships of war of the largest dimensions". They failed to win a further contract in 1817 as they refused to bring down their price to within £2000 of the lowest tender. They did however subsequently construct the northern sector, an £850,000 contract. Close to the naval dockyard Banks founded Banks town (later Sheerness-on-sea) as a speculation providing a thrice weekly service from Sheerness by steamboat (built by Jolliffe, Banks and Co.) Sheppey Court is likely to have been built after 1812, when Banks started his contract at Sheerness dockyard and well before 1835 when he died. The footprint of the early C19 part of Sheppey Court is shown on the First Edition O S map of 1873 and subsequent editions through to the Fourth Edition O S map of 1933. in 1968, two storey nursing home additions were made to the west, to both north and south, by the firm of Dalgliesh and Co. to provide purpose-built nursing home accommodation and the original house was refurbished at that time.

STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: An early C19 Greek Revival style house, little altered externally and retaining some original fittings. It was built as a country retreat for the nationally important figure Sir Edward Banks, of the firm of Banks and Jolliffe, perhaps the largest contractors of public engineering works of the time. It is the only one of Banks surviving houses to be specially built for him and is situated near to two of his most important projects, Sheerness Naval Dockyard and his speculative development called Banks town, later Sheerness-on-sea.

SOURCES:
Dictionary of National Biography entry on Sir Edward Banks.

Listing NGR: TQ9292073303

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26550853

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

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)