Cloverley Hall And Stable Yards

Country house, now a conference centre. Built 1864-70 by William Eden Nesfield for John Pemberton Heywood, a Liverpool banker who purchased the estate from the Dod family around 1864. The house was commissioned in 1864 and construction began the following year, with the main building period running from 1865-68. The original house was partly demolished and rebuilt in 1926-7, probably by Heywood Lonsdale. Despite this demolition, the surviving service ranges remain an important and well-detailed example of Nesfield's early domestic work.

The buildings are constructed of red brick in English bond with some blue-brick diapering and yellow/grey sandstone ashlar dressings. Some areas feature slate hanging and decorative plasterwork. The roofs are graded slate. The complex forms an L-plan, comprising the service range of the now-demolished house and an L-plan stable block attached to the south-west. The architecture is in a neo-Gothic style, predominantly two storeys with some areas of one storey and attic over basement.

Architectural Details

Chamfered plinths support the walls, with moulded string courses running horizontally. Lead-lined gutters feature ornamental disc motifs or 'pies'. Parapets have chamfered copings, including gables with carved gabled kneelers and globe finials. Numerous tall brick stacks punctuate the roofline, featuring projecting strips and oversailing tops, some consisting of grouped circular shafts. Windows throughout are ovolo-moulded and chamfered, mullioned and transomed in stone with leaded lights. Moulded lead downpipes are fitted with ornamental castellated rainwater heads dated "1867 J P H" (John Pemberton Heywood) and "1927 H L" (probably Heywood Lonsdale).

North-West (Entrance) Front

The entrance front comprises three bays with three- and four-light moulded mullioned and transomed windows with dripstones. An inserted central Tudor-arched doorway contains a pair of three-panelled oak doors with moulded reveals and a tympanum inscribed "1868-1926". Flanking cross windows sit either side. Above is a moulded recessed panel with a carved coat of arms. A straight joint to the right of the door marks the junction between the former service range to the left and the rebuilt fragment of the house to the right.

Right-Hand Return (South-West) Front

Dating from 1927, this front features two gables across three bays with mullioned and transomed stone windows. A central carved wooden door is topped by a carved bird above and a two-part overlight.

South-East (Garden) Front

The block forming the 1927 house sits to the left, with a gabled wing positioned off-centre to the right. Windows are arranged 2:1:1 in mullioned and transomed stone; basement windows have decorative wrought-iron grilles. A Tudor-arched basement door to the left features chamfered reveals, carved spandrels and surround, with a stone panel above carved with cornucopia and the motto: "GATHER YE ROSEBUDS WHILE YE MAY".

The former scullery occupies the centre with a double-hipped roof and large ridge stack. It has a large three-light mullioned and transomed stone window to the right, a trefoil-headed window to the left, and three basement windows consisting of paired Gothic lights. The left-hand return features a gabled semi-dormer and first-floor squinch with triple-chamfered arch. To its right, a low one-storey range has a chamfered-mullioned strip window lighting a corridor.

A curious combined dovecote, game larder and gun room stands to the far right with a projecting apsidal end. The former ground-floor gun room has a three-light mullioned and transomed stone window. Tall trefoil-headed windows light the former first-floor game larder. Narrow vertical vents sit below the eaves. A tall gabled dovecote set at an angle to the left is supported on stone brackets at eaves level, featuring louvres, rose-motifs to the lead-sheathed sides, and a bracketed gable. Ridge crestings and finials complete the composition. The gable end to the rear is parapeted with an external brick stack corbelled from the attic featuring two circular shafts.

Kitchen Court

The south-east range containing the pantry and other service rooms has three louvred raking dormers and a louvred hipped dormer to the right. Two gabled ranges sit to the south-west: the former kitchen to the left with a pair of tall two-light mullioned and transomed windows, and the former servants' hall set back to the right with a ground-floor five-light window.

The north-west range consists of a two-storey former wash house to the right with a pair of half-hipped gables and three- and four-light mullioned and transomed wooden windows. A lean-to roof covers a covered way to the left with two hipped dormers above containing four-light wooden casements.

The rear of the wash-house range faces the stable court to the north-west. The central coach house comprises five pairs of boarded doors with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges, divided by cast-iron posts. A hipped dormer sits to the left. The former horse washing place to the right has a ground-floor boarded door and decoratively-inscribed plaster coving to the slate-hung gable above with a four-light casement.

Stable Range

The L-plan stable range presents its south-west (entrance) front with a central clock tower/gatehouse of four stages. It features a double-chamfered plinth, string courses, moulded stone eaves cornice, and a tall hipped roof with ridge cresting and finials. An integral brick lateral stack to the right has a pitched-roof link to the attic.

The central tall gabled wooden belfry contains four copper bells divided by turned balusters, with cusped barge boards and a finial with remains of a glass globe. A stair turret projects at the left with one- and two-light windows and a stone frieze with carved discs at the foot of the gable with finial.

The top stage of the tower features a clock in a square panel surrounded by small carved square panels depicting the signs of the zodiac, returning to the side of the stair tower. Mottoes are superscribed above and below: "LO THOUGH WE SLEEP OR WAKE OR ROAM OR RIDE / AYE FLEETH THE TIME IT WILL NO MAN ABIDE". A small trefoil-headed window sits to the right with a small boarded access hatch below featuring decorative wrought-iron strap hinges. The third stage has a stone cross window and the second stage a five-light mullioned stone window.

A moulded carriage archway with hoodmould provides entry. The interior of the archway has beams resting on stone corbels. Inside to the left, a pair of roll-moulded arched doors have a continuous hoodmould with a central stop consisting of a carved horse's head within a horseshoe, and boarded doors with strap hinges. To the right, a double-chamfered arched doorway leads to the harness room with a boarded door and carved flower in a stone panel above.

Flanking ranges of one storey and attic extend on either side. The range to the right has a large gabled semi-dormer with a pair of stone cross windows and two ground-floor three-light mullioned and transomed stone windows to the former harness room. Part of the former service range in the angle to the right has a gable to the front and gabled semi-dormer to the return. The part of the stable range set back to the left of the tower has a central gabled semi-dormer with a pair of stone cross windows and flanking loft vents beneath the eaves with wooden louvres.

Stable Court

The rear of the clock tower shows a gabled louvred dormer, the clock with flanking chamfered lights, a cross window to the third stage with a carved panel to the right, a five-light mullioned window to the second stage, and a moulded archway with impost band.

The north-west range has a brick ridge stack off-centre to the right. A large loft dormer off-centre to the left features external steps up to a half-glazed door, a small casement to the right, and a timber-framed gable with a three-light wooden casement, ornamentally-incised plaster infill, and finial. Three ground-floor two-light mullioned stone windows provide light. A half-glazed door to the right has moulded reveals. A boarded door to the left features wrought-iron strap hinges, moulded reveals, two square stone panels above with carved stylized foliage, and a dripstone. An attached mounting block sits off-centre to the left.

The rear has three gabled semi-dormers alternating with louvred wooden vents beneath the eaves. The right-hand gable has a small stair turret to the left.

Former Brewhouse

A former brewhouse adjoins the stable range to the north-east. It has a chamfered plinth, moulded cornice and ashlar parapet with chamfered coping, and a hipped roof with cresting and finials, and a louvred raking dormer to the south-east.

The north-west and north-east fronts have pairs of deeply recessed double-chamfered Gothic arches with moulded impost bands. The openings have chamfered cills and wooden louvres with shaped ends, with boarded-up (as of October 1986) openings beneath. The south-east front has a pair of tall recessed rectangular panels, a four-light mullioned stone window high up to the left, a blocked doorway to the left, and a segmental-arched doorway with a pair of boarded doors low down to the right.

Interior

The present house interiors date from 1926-7 but possibly contain reused work from the demolished part. A panelled draught lobby has half-glazed doors. The three-flight oak staircase with landings features a closed string, pierced splat balusters, square newels with pierced finials and pendants, and a dado rail. The former housekeeper's room at the rear has oak panelling and a sandstone ashlar fireplace with a moulded Tudor arch.

At least one Nesfield fitting survives, now in the main part of the house: a curved gun cupboard designed to stand against the curved wall of the former gun room. The interior of the coach house has cast-iron I-beams.

Historical Context

Nesfield's stone mason at Cloverley was James Forsyth, who was responsible for the carved ornament. Nesfield was also responsible for the house's forecourt walls, two lodges, Holy Trinity Church at Calverhall, and other nearby buildings. Cloverley Hall stands within landscaped parkland with an ornamental lake to the south-east.