Former Lawton Hall School

Former Lawton Hall School

A country house, now a school, dating from the mid-18th century. Built in red brick with Flemish bond and ashlar dressings, the building has a slate roof with lead flashings and rises to two and three storeys.

The entrance front is symmetrically arranged across nine bays, with asymmetrical wings flanking either side. The centrepiece projects forward across three bays and two storeys, featuring at its centre an ashlar door surround with a round-arched doorway (now blocked and containing a sash window). A moulded band marks the level of the arch's springing, with triple keystones at the apex. Roman Doric demi-columns flank the doorway, supporting a Doric entablature and segmental pediment. This stone frontispiece continues at first floor level as an ashlar window surround with sloping shoulders, containing a 3 x 5 sash window with a round-arched head that projects into the pediment, also featuring a band at arch springing and triple keystones. To either side at ground floor, lateral windows have panelled stone surrounds with round-arched tops and projecting keystones. The first floor windows above are lugged and shouldered. The open pediment has moulded brackets to either side supporting doserettes.

To either side of the projecting centrepiece are three-bay sections of three storeys rising to the same height and continuing the entablature, with projecting portions supported by brackets at far right and left. Ground and first floor windows are 3 x 4 sash panes with wedge lintels carved to simulate chamfered rustication and projecting keystones; second floor windows are 3 x 2 panes. A stone porchway of circa 1860 marks the resited hallway at the central ground floor bay of the right-hand side, with Roman Doric columns and flat roof.

Originally, single-bay wings of two storeys flanked the central nine bays with ground floor doorways. The right-hand wing has been extended to form a four-bay service wing with a projecting end-pavilion of two storeys. An ashlar string course divides the floors, with an ashlar cornice and parapet at the wall top. Windows are 3 x 4 panes at ground floor and 3 x 3 panes at first floor; the pavilion features a Venetian window with central doorway and a Diocletian window to the first floor.

The left-hand wing has been extended by one further bay and is terminated by a pilaster buttress. To its left, recessed, stands a late 19th-century billiard room of three bays. Chimney stacks of four bays flank the central block to left and right, with a central stack of five flues.

The rear elevation centres on a semi-octagonal bay window of two storeys height within the central nine bays. At the centre is a Venetian window with Ionic pilasters to either side and simplified entablature; its central light was extended downward in the early 19th century to form a French window. To the angles are 3 x 5 sash windows with wedge lintels carved in imitation of chamfered rustication and projecting keystones. At mezzanine level are three roundels, the central one flanked by uncarved stone blocks. The first floor has a central arched window and flanking 3 x 2 pane windows. The three-bay, three-storey sections at either side have ground and first floor windows of 3 x 4 sash panes and attic windows of 3 x 2 panes, all with wedge-shaped lintels carved to imitate chamfered rustication and projecting keystones. The bays at the left of the right-hand wing and at the right of the left-hand wing both have semi-glazed doors inserted. The service wing at left has four bays with 4 x 3 sash panes at ground floor and 3 x 3 panes at first floor.

Interior

The original entrance hall features lugged and shouldered picture surrounds of moulded plaster with Rococo cartouches, repeated around the arched windows and former doorway. Two lateral doors to each side have richly moulded surrounds. Opposite the original entrance is a fire surround of wood with demi-columns flanking it, egg-and-dart capitals, and a frieze of modillions with dentils below and square flowers to the metopes. A heavy cornice runs below the ceiling, which has richly moulded Rococo plasterwork panels.

The saloon features a fire surround with volutes to either side bearing female heads, shouldered surround with egg-and-dart moulding, and a grotesque mask to the central projecting keystone. The overmantel has pilasters with trails of foliage falling from lion masks and heavily moulded lower consoles decorated with acanthus leaves, crowned by a swan-necked pediment. Lugged and shouldered door surrounds feature ears of corn and swags of foliage with female masks at the centre of overdoors. The cornice includes shell motifs. One side has a semi-octagonal bay window with central Venetian window and full entablature; flanking windows have lugged surrounds. The ceiling features a full cornice and Rococo plasterwork in the manner of Bagucci, with heads and cartouches, and an oval frame at centre containing an eagle in relief with extending claws.

One first floor room displays raised and fielded panelling divided by a chair rail and Doric pilasters with cabling to their lower bodies and egg-and-dart moulding to their capitals. Several first floor rooms have lugged and shouldered door and fire surrounds with egg-and-dart moulding.

The staircase hall has been altered at ground floor level, with the lowest flight turned at right angles and one ground floor room knocked through to create a larger hallway lined with pseudo-Jacobean panelling. The staircase comprises four flights with double vase balusters, square newels, and a heavy moulded and ramped handrail. Above the stairwell, the ceiling displays Rococo plasterwork with a heavy central boss. Three attic rooms contain 17th-century wooden panelling brought from elsewhere.