Stonyhurst College, Old Quadrangle

Stonyhurst College, Old Quadrangle

A Roman Catholic boarding school comprising dormitories, chapel, libraries, communal and circulation areas, collection display rooms, archive stores and offices. The buildings enclose a rectangular quadrangle, with the principal historic entrance in the gatehouse on the west front.

The complex was built in stages over four centuries. The south range of the west front and gatehouse date to 1592–5, built for Sir Richard Shireburn. The gatehouse received embellishments in 1712 for Sir Nicholas Shireburn. The east hall range also dates from the 1590s for Sir Richard Shireburn, and was completed between 1690 and 1718 for Sir Nicholas Shireburn, then extended to the north in 1856 by Father Richard Vaughan. The north range of the west front and north side of the front quadrangle were rebuilt in similar style between 1843 and 1856 by Father Richard Vaughan, including the Arundell Library. The Sodality Chapel was built between 1856 and 1859 by C.A. Buckler.

The buildings are constructed of sandstone, either ashlar or coursed dressed stone, with deep moulded plinths, string courses, hoodmoulds, cornices and parapet copings. The pitched roofs are of graduated Lakeland or Welsh slate, with some mineral felt. The architectural styles span Elizabethan, Jacobean, Baroque and Elizabethan revival periods.

The central four-stage gatehouse tower is the most prominent external feature, with a semi-circular arched gateway, Doric frieze and recessed roundels containing classical heads on the ground floor, these derived from lead garden statuary by van Nost. Each floor is framed by paired columns of Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite orders, articulated by moulded cornices and string courses. A stone-carved cartouche of the Shireburn arms appears on the first floor, above four-light moulded mullioned and transomed windows. The gatehouse has a battlemented parapet and external stacks to the returns. The iron gates date to 1955 and were designed by Vincent Hall and Wilfred Mangan. A segmental-vaulted stone ribbed outer passage features moulded steps and grotesque keystones to the inner arch. The rear elevation is plainer, flanked by octagonal stair turrets with two-light mullioned windows and narrow moulded doorways with nineteenth-century panelled doors. A gilded clock face appears on the north tower. Baroque domed cupolas were added in 1712.

The west front south range is three storeys high with four irregular bays and a projecting block to the south. It has a moulded plinth, two or three-light mullioned windows to the ground and second floors, and tall mullioned and transomed windows to the first floor, all with hoodmoulds and a string course to the plain parapet. A squat tower projects to the right, featuring a five-light pointed window with interlaced tracery at ground floor (the former chapel), and two-light and three-light mullioned windows to the first and second floors above.

The west front north range mirrors the south range, with three storeys and four regular bays. A north block breaks forward to the left, with a tall oriel containing a mullioned and transomed window to the first floor and a hipped roof. Two ashlar ridge stacks are present. The rear elevation has a moulded plinth, mullioned windows to the ground and second floors, tall mullioned and transomed windows to the first floor, and a blocked door to the left.

The front quadrangle south range is three storeys with five bays. It has a canted central bay with string courses, corner pilasters and moulded friezes. A pedimented doorway dates to around 1690–1700. Lead rainwater hoppers with shields date to around 1694. Four blocked Tudor-arched doorways are present, along with three-light mullioned windows to the ground floor, large mullioned and transomed windows to the first floor, and four-light mullioned windows to the second floor.

The hall range encloses the east side of the quadrangle and dates from the 1590s for Sir Richard Shireburn, with alterations around 1700 and an extension to the north in similar style in 1856 by Father Richard Vaughan. It is three storeys high with a half-octagonal bay to the right, mullioned windows to the ground and second floors, and mullioned and transomed windows to the first-floor hall. A raking mid-nineteenth-century buttress to the centre conceals a basement staircase, with above it a moulded hoodmould re-set on the site of the former external staircase. A plain parapet and pitched Lakeland slate roof complete the range. A square bay projecting to the left was added around 1856 with a flat roof. A three-storey canted bay window on the east side of the hall is visible in the Shireburn Quadrangle.

The front quadrangle north range was built in form and style to match the south quadrangle range around 1856 by Father Vaughan, with a doorway to the central canted bay and a double-pile plan with felted flat roofs. The Sodality Chapel, designed by C.A. Buckler in 1856–9, projects to the outer north-east angle of the quadrangle on the upper floor. Its canted apse has pointed windows with Perpendicular tracery, and square-headed cusped mullioned and transomed windows to the east and west elevations, with a plain parapet and Welsh slate roof. A twentieth-century infill on the north side of the north range is not of special interest.

Interior features are substantial. In the south range, the Pieta Gallery has a flagged floor, deep chamfered plastered beams and an arcaded alcove by Edmund Kirby from 1889, containing a plaster Pieta by Achtermann from 1862. The Bayley Room in the south-west corner of the former chapel has three late sixteenth-century traceried windows, blocked to the south and east, and decorative plasterwork of around 1800. Adjoining offices have deep chamfered plastered beams and moulded corbels.

The first-floor Long Room in the south range and Staff Room in the west range retain late sixteenth-century plasterwork with scrolled or foliage friezes and compartmentalised ceilings with strapwork decoration, partly restored. A nineteenth-century bolection-moulded marble fireplace adorns the Long Room, and nineteenth-century panelled doors and a late nineteenth-century chimneypiece incorporating a re-set sixteenth-century oak mullioned window appear in the Staff Room.

The first-floor hall, known as the Top Refectory, has an early seventeenth-century geometric ribbed plaster ceiling with a plaster frieze dated 1606, restored with a north bay added in the 1850s. A lateral sixteenth-century segmental-arched stone fireplace adorns the east wall. An arcaded oak screen and gallery balustrade to the north incorporates re-used sixteenth-century joinery with a Latin inscription and the date MCCCCCXXII. A diagonally-laid grey marble floor from the 1840s features a stepped upper end. Oak dado panelling was added in 1910. Stained glass by Willement dates to 1851, with later work by P. Woodroffe from 1920.

The gatehouse contains a newel staircase with stone treads and newel, and chamfered stone doorways. Third-floor rooms have fitted Neo-classical cupboards and joinery of around 1800.

In the north-west range to the front quadrangle, the 1840s Stuart Parlour has oak panelling and a Renaissance-style oak chimneypiece. Eight-panelled doors with brass fittings and plaster cornices appear in this and adjoining rooms.

The north range features an entrance hall with a black and white marble tiled floor, moulded plaster cornices and panelled doors. A seventeenth-century style open-well timber staircase to the north-east corner has a closed string, turned balusters, ball finials, a wide handrail, a blocked top light with glazing bars and a coved plaster ceiling.

The first-floor Square and Bay Libraries in the north-west range have 1840s fitted shelving and display cases, timber galleries with brass handrails and an ornate radiator cover, and Elizabethan-style decorative plaster ceilings. The first-floor Arundell Library in the north range, dating to the 1850s, has fitted bookcases and an Elizabethan-style ceiling plaster.

The first-floor Sodality Chapel, designed by C.A. Buckler in 1856 and remodelled by him in 1899, features a pointed vaulted ceiling, a carved stone Gothic altar by Earp, and a feretory by Buckler. Dado panelling and pews are present, along with stained glass to the apse by Hardman and side windows by Paul Woodroffe from around 1920.

Ancillary features include sandstone setts to the front quadrangle, laid in the 1850s, with geometric footways.