The Grove

The Grove

House, subsequently used as a school building. Circa 1770, built for Colonel Thomas D'Avenant. Red brick with gauged orange brick dressings, rendered plinth, and some painted stone details. Hipped plain tile roof. Double-pile plan with semi-circular bow to south-east, flanking canted bays to the sides, and service wing to north-east. Two storeys and attic.

The south-west (garden) front features a plinth, ground-floor cill band, fluted plat band, modillion cornice and parapet with moulded stone coping. A pair of brick ridge stacks rises above. The facade is arranged in 1:3:1 bays with a central full-height bow window. Glazing bar sashes have painted stone cills and gauged-brick heads. A central first-floor Venetian window with cill has fluted piers supporting an entablature with fluted frieze and moulded architrave to the central light. Eighteenth-century lead downpipes in the angles of the bow feature fluted rainwater heads.

The left-hand (entrance) front displays 2:3 bays with a full-height half-octagonal bay to the right. The doorway in the second bay from the left comprises an eighteenth-century door with six octagonal panels, impost band, radial fanlight, octagonal-panelled reveals and soffit, moulded architrave, and a Doric doorcase consisting of fluted three-quarter columns supporting sections of entablature and an open triangular pediment. Three stone steps lead up with a low stone retaining wall to the left. The right-hand return front has 3:2 bays and also features a full-height half-octagonal bay to the left. The rear elevation shows 3:3 bays. A two-storey former service wing adjoins to the north-east, arranged in 9 x 2 bays with glazing bar sashes and gauged-brick heads. Three brick ridge stacks are present.

Interior

The interior is largely intact from circa 1770. The entrance corridor features fluted pilaster strips and a five-bay groined vault. A round archway leads to the staircase hall with fluted pilaster strips, moulded architrave, and panelled reveals and soffit.

The central ground-floor front room has an oval plan, dado panelling, frieze with palmette enrichment, and modillion cornice with paterae. An eighteenth-century fireplace is present. A pair of round-arched recesses flanks a curved six-panelled door at the rear.

The left-hand ground-floor rear room (formerly a library) contains a central elliptical archway with fluted pilasters, moulded architrave, scrolled key, and panelled reveals and soffit. Arched cupboards flank the former fireplace on the end wall, featuring ogee-headed pigeon-holes and moulded architraves.

The staircase hall features ground-floor fluted frieze and moulded cornice, and first-floor entablature with saltire and anthemion enrichment, modillion cornice with paterae, and acanthus enrichment above. An eighteenth-century three-flight rectangular-well oak staircase has loadings, open string with cut brackets, stick balusters (probably replacing former turned balusters), ramped moulded handrail, and wreathed foot reveal. Ramped dado panelling is present. An eighteenth-century dog-leg back staircase has landings, open string with cut brackets, stick balusters, and ramped handrail.

The first-floor corridor has fluted frieze and moulded cornice. A round archway leads to the staircase hall with fluted pilaster strips, moulded architrave, and panelled reveals and soffit.

The central first-floor front room has an oval plan, dado panelling, frieze with amphora and enrichment depicting musical instruments, modillion cornice with paterae and acanthus enrichment above. A Venetian window features Roman Doric columns and pilasters supporting an entablature with mutules and cornice. A pair of scalloped round-arched niches in the opposite wall each contain a central medallion and radiating husk trails to paterae. A central curved six-panelled door has moulded architrave and panelled reveals. An eighteenth-century fireplace features a marble surround, three-quarter Corinthian columns, architrave with garlands, husk drops, swags and medallions, enriched frieze with paterae and buchrania to sections broken forward over the columns, and modillion cornice.

The left-hand first-floor rear room contains an eighteenth-century fireplace with pilaster strips and drops, and brackets supporting frieze with anthemion and palmette ornament, oval paterae above the pilasters, and enriched cornice. Eighteenth-century six-panelled doors throughout many retain their original door furniture.

Historical Context

In 1751 Colonel Thomas D'Avenant married Lady Ann Corbet of Adderley. The Grove was built for them in the 1770s. The Colonel died in 1798 and the house was subsequently sold. The house exhibits stylistic similarities to Barlaston Hall (circa 1756) near Stoke-on-Trent, probably by Sir Robert Taylor. The plan form, with a bow and two canted bays, and other details such as the octagonal panels in the door, are particularly reminiscent of that building. It is possible that, if not actually by Taylor himself, The Grove was designed by a craftsman who worked at Barlaston or by an architect familiar with it.