Description

39/0/10005
18-AUG-03

CAWSTON
AYLSHAM ROAD
CAWSTON COLLEGE

II

Country House. 1896 by Sir Ernest George and Alfred Yeates for George Cawston. Converted to public school 1964. Red brick with stone dressings; tile roofs with stone coped gables with finials. Brick ornamental ridge and side stacks with double, triple and quadruple flues.
Restrained Tudor style with stone mullioned windows throughout.
PLAN: U-plan: principal south block with two north service wings. Mainly 2 storeys.
EXTERIOR: Entrance front is a carefully designed long low asymmetrical composition of 4 3-light windows to first floor with projecting stack to left, 2-storey square bay to right and a large projecting gabled porch to far right with a stack and a facing gable on the end. Further windows to ground floor with high plinth and above them a string course. Entrance in porch has ornamental door case and pedimented tablet over. Left gable end has further windows and, on the other side of the court to rear, another wing completes the U-plan.
The south front is also of 2 storeys; 6-window range. Nearly symmetrical, with 2 full-height polygonal bay windows. Tall plinth of chequered brick and flint with stone set-off. Moulded stone string course at first floor and a moulded stone cornice below the plain parapet. Door to centre right with moulded stone door case. Ground-floor windows with transoms, including to the canted bays, set in stone architraves. First-floor windows without transoms. Later extension to far right in front of further wing and further extension beyond.
INTERIOR: not inspected. 2002 sale particulars mention heavily beamed and low relief plaster ceilings.
This is a very finely detailed country house by a leading architectural practice of the day.

SOURCES:
Building News: 1 May 1896, 15 May 1895 (with a plan and illustrations)
The Architect: 1 May 1896
The Builder: 6 June 1896, p.487
Academy Architecture: 1896, in both volumes
Grainger, H.J., The Architecture of Sir Ernest George and his Partners, c. 1860-1922', Ph.D. Thesis, University of Leeds, 1985
Gray, A. Stuart, Edwardian Architecture: a Biographical Dictionary, London, 1985
Pevsner, N & Wilson, B, Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-east, Penguin Books, London, 1997

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q99864807

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)