Cranwells (Formerly Summerfield School) and Attached Balustrades and Steps, Weston, Bath and North East Somerset

Description

WESTON PARK EAST
656-1/14/1865 (East side)

Cranwells (formerly Summerfield School),
and attached balustrades and steps

(Formerly Listed as:
Summerfield School and attached
balustrades and steps)
11/08/72
II

A mansion built in 1850-52 to a design by Wilson and Fuller.

MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar with slate roofs and moulded stacks to the returns set behind a balustraded parapet.

PLAN: The large two storey mansion with partial basement has a rectangular plan with rooms coming off a central hall with large stairwell. Springing eastwards from its north-west corner is a former palm house built to a concave-curved plan with a later added conservatory. The late-C20 school buildings attached to its north are not of special interest.

EXTERIOR: The symmetrical front elevation to the south is three bays wide, with nine windows arranged around the entrance porch. The two by two pane sash windows with horizontal glazing bars are surrounded by moulded architraves with flush mask keystones and bracketed sills to those at first floor level, set under a modillion cornice and pulvinated frieze and plinth encircling the entire building. Above the ground floor windows are moulded string courses. The central bay projects slightly forward, with a laurel wreath in a tympanum and a pediment resting on paired fluted Ionic pilasters, with similar pilasters to the quoins. The prostyle porch has a balustraded parapet, a mutule cornice and triglyph frieze with motifs to the metopes, similar to those in the Circus in Bath (qv). It is supported by plain Doric columns with attached balustrades to either side, and gives access to steps leading to panelled double doors with a large light above. To the right is a lower carriage entrance leading to the courtyard and formerly, the stables (now no longer there). This consists of a screen wall with a parapet, pediment and frieze resting on paired pilasters, all matching the mansion.

The garden elevation to the west is similar but more ornate with shields in cartouches to the cornice above paired pilasters to the quoins; a central projecting canted bay has pilasters and similar shields to the angles and French windows to a terrace enclosed by a balustrade. Attached to the left corner is the arcaded concave-curved former palm house with keystones to moulded archivolts, paired pilasters with cornices and plinths articulating five arches with later glazing. Attached to the left of the former palm house, at a right angle to the house, is a hip-roofed former conservatory added in the late-C19, with a cornice to the eaves, and a central pediment over double half-glazed doors flanked on either side by three full height six by six pane sash windows.

The side elevation to the east has a central projecting range with a pediment above a tall Venetian window, with blind windows to the left and six by six pane sash windows to the right. The rear elevation, facing a service yard to the north, formerly enclosed by the stables, now no longer there, is irregular, with a number of blind windows and a later flat roofed extension to the left.

INTERIOR: The interior is richly decorated, mostly of mid-C19 date, but also incorporating late-C19 and early-C20 features and decorations.

On the ground floor is a small vestibule with mahogany doors, marble floors, round arched niches to the walls and a coffered ceiling with decorative egg and dart frieze. This gives access to a large reception hall, again with marble floors and a coffered ceiling with elaborate plasterwork. Its style echoes that of the exterior of the mansion: it is divided into three parts by fluted Ionic columns and has arched recesses to the walls, emphasising the architraves and panelled doors leading to the principal rooms, decorated above with medallions and sprays of foliage. The centre piece to the hall is a large mid-C19 Imperial stone stair, with scrolled mahogany handrail and cast iron balusters, set under a full height barrel vaulted, coffered ceiling. It is lit by a tall Venetian window with stained glass to the sides, designed by Swaine Bourne & Sons of Birmingham and London, inserted in 1896.

The principal ground floor rooms include a former library, dining room and drawing room. The former library to the south-west corner has three arched alcoves to the west side. It has a parquet floor and a plain yellow marble fire place. The dining room, opposite, is much more ornate and mostly of late-C19 date (added by Campbell Cory), including a highly decorative fireplace and cornices with floral motifs. The central drawing room has similarly ornate cornices, architraves, and dado-rails. Its bay windows with panelled shutters overlook the garden to the west, with those to either side of the bay now having dropped sills and the central one having a pair of French doors (inserted later). North of the former drawing room are two smaller rooms, now toilets and a music room to the former school. The single storey palm house retains its internal broad pilasters forming the arcade and its mosaic floor.

At first floor level the landing, formerly extending to the full length of the house, repeats the decorative scheme of that to the ground floor, with paired fluted Ionic columns and pilasters. It has an elaborate Georgian-style door surround leading to the master bedroom above the drawing room. This room is connected with two smaller rooms to the north, as below, one of which retains a mid-C19 fire surround. The further bedrooms to the front retain their cornices, architraves and panelled doors, but have lost their fire places.

The rear, north side of the mansion contains the servant's rooms and stairs, with at ground floor level a door and stairs leading to a basement containing vaulted cellars.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: To the south and west the mansion is enclosed by a stone balustraded terrace: that to the south front curves inward to flank a flight of seven steps leading to the main entrance, and that to the west curves outwards, with urns to the piers flanking five steps leading into the garden. Here, on the lawn, stands a mid-C19 two-tiered pedestal-basin fountain in a circular pool (now used as a flower bed). Immediately north-east of the mansion, set into a retaining stone wall enclosing a courtyard, is a small ice house with a round arched opening, shaped by stone voussoirs. Further to the south-west of the mansion, along Weston Park East, stand a pair of stone gate piers with small pediments to each face, and attached curved walls topped with a balustrade, which mark the main entrance drive leading to Cranwells.

SETTING: Cranwells stands in the remains of a mid-C19 garden and park laid out on a hillside, retaining mature tree belts, a number of specimen trees and a small lake.

HISTORY: Cranwells was built for the Unitarian Minister Jerom Murch, former Mayor of Bath. Its design, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1850, was probably inspired by that of Widcombe Manor in Bath (qv), built in c1727, possibly by Nathaniel Ireson of Wincanton. Cranwells and its main drive are first depicted on Cotterell's map of Bath of 1852. Shortly after, a stable block and walled garden were built too. Murch, being a keen gardener and a member of the Parks Committee responsible for the creation of Victoria Park (qv), also built a palm house overlooking a garden with a fountain, and a park served by two lodges, including a small lake. The entire estate is depicted on the Ordnance Survey Town Map for Bath (1:500) of 1886.

After Jerom Murch's death in 1895, the estate was bought by Saxton Campbell Cory, a wealthy colliery owner, who extensively embellished the interior of the mansion. In 1909 Cranwells was bought by Alfred Pitman, the founder of the Pitman Press on the Lower Bristol Road in Bath. Sale Particulars of 1909, accompanied by some photographs, describe the mansion and its associated outbuildings in great detail. A series of photographs of 1901 also show the interior as improved by Campbell Cory.

In 1952 Cranwells was bought by Edward Greenland, a tobacconist and confectioner, who sold off the majority of the parkland for development. In 1961 the Bath Corporation placed a Compulsory Purchase Order on the mansion to accommodate Cranwells Art Secondary School, later in the 1970s to become Summerfield School, a special educational needs school. The walled garden, glass houses and stable block were demolished, and the majority of the park had by now been built over with a new housing estate. The remaining parkland became the school's grounds, with further school buildings introduced in the later C20.

SOURCES: M Forsyth, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Bath (2003), pp 295-6.
A Kolaczkowski, 'Murch, Jerom (1807-1895)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).
K Ross, Building and Archaeology Report on Summerfield School, Weston Park East, Weston, Bath (Oct 2006), for Property Services, Bath and North-East Somerset Council.
J Cotterell, Map of Bath, 1852
Ordnance Survey Town Map, 1:500, published 1886
Sale particulars of Cranwells, 1909 (Gloucestershire Record Office)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Cranwells (formerly Summerfield School), Weston Park East, Weston, Bath, merits listing at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It is an interesting example of a country house with a good quality historicist design which embodies the rediscovery of Bath's early- Georgian architecture by the mid-Victorians.
* It displays good quality architectural detailing and contains significant C19 internal features and elaborate decorations, which have survived well.
* Despite the loss of its stables and the majority of its park, it continues to be, together with its remaining parkland and associated structures, a good example of a small C19 estate with interesting local historic associations.

Listing NGR: ST7373366095

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