Yeaton Peverey

YEATON PEVEREY

Large country house, latterly a school, now disused. Built 1890–1892, designed by Aston Webb for Sir Offley Wakeman. Constructed in red sandstone ashlar with some timber framing to the rear featuring plastered infill. Graded slate roofs. The building is executed in a free Jacobean style across two storeys and an attic, with a service wing of one storey and attic. The design incorporates chamfered plinths, moulded string courses, and parapets with moulded copings; some parapet sections are pierced and topped with obelisk finials. The tall brick chimney stacks consist of grouped shafts with round arches between and oversailing caps. A pair of tall integral ashlar end stacks stand to the west. Windows are mainly moulded mullioned and transomed with leaded lights; some feature separate dripstones.

The north (entrance) front presents an asymmetrical composition. Centrepiece is a three-storey square tower set off-centre to the left, with an entrance formed by a pair of three-panelled doors set within a moulded round archway topped by a carved coat of arms. A frieze with carved inscription runs around this element and the adjacent wing to the left. The tower has a pierced parapet with obelisks. An octagonal stone cupola sits in the right-hand front corner, mounted on a square base with louvred round arches and an ogee lead dome finished with a weathervane. To the left projects a two-storey wing containing a pair of two-light first-floor windows and a ground-floor wide segmental bow with a large five-light window. A three-window hall range is positioned off-centre to the right, featuring varied mullioned and transomed windows, including a central ground-floor canted bay. A gabled wing to the right incorporates a two-storey canted bay.

The right-hand return front displays four small gables. The outer pair project and carry tall panelled ashlar stacks with battlemented caps—that to the left is integral to the gable, while that to the right is positioned to one side with moulding at the base dying into the wall. An inscription appears in a frieze below. A string course runs across to the south front. A small one-storey canted bay in the angle to the right has a battlemented parapet. A conservatory to the left features buttresses, a battlemented parapet, and a hipped glazed roof.

The south (garden) front is arranged in a 1:5:1 bay pattern. Projecting outer wings contain first-floor oriel windows. A sundial sits beneath the left-hand oriel. The recessed centre has a jettied timber-framed first floor with three central gabled oriel windows displaying wooden mullioned and transomed windows with well-carved detail; the central window features two central canted lights. A service range adjoins to the west, with mullioned and transomed stone windows, gabled and semi-gabled dormers, and plain ashlar stacks. A central projecting gabled wing extends to the north, topped with a small square ogee-capped cupola on its ridge.

The interior, not inspected but documented in photographs at the National Monument Record, displays richly detailed neo-Jacobean ornament and fittings. The entrance and staircase hall features panelling and a deeply-moulded cross-beamed ceiling. At the lower staircase end is pierced elliptical drop arcading with pendants. A dog-leg staircase has a closed string, barleysugar balusters, a moulded handrail, and panelled square newel posts with pierced finials, accompanied by a balustraded gallery. Other richly decorated rooms display ornamental panelling, enriched plaster ceilings and wall decoration, inglenooks, and chimney-pieces. Some original wallpaper and light fittings survive.

The house stands within landscaped grounds, which include a terrace, forecourt walls with pavilions, and a stable block to the north-east.