Denstone College

Denstone College

School built 1868-1873 by Slater and Carpenter. Constructed in coursed and squared rough-faced stone with ashlar quoins and dressings. Clay tile roof with coped verges on kneelers and crested ridge tiles; ashlar lateral external and off-ridge stacks.

The building is planned as an H-shape with a chapel wing to the east and a hall wing to the north. The central range runs north-west to south-east while the wings run north-east to south-west, with an additional service wing to the north-west aligned north-west to south-east. The architecture is executed in the late 13th century Gothic style, typical of high Victorian ecclesiastical design.

The central range is two storeys with lower flanking links also of two storeys and attic, arranged in a 3:5:3 bay pattern. A projecting chapel wing stands to the left and a projecting hall wing to the right. The main façade features a central gabled porch with angle buttresses and a central pointed doorway fitted with a two-leaf iron-studded door, topped by a statuette of the founder. On the ground floor either side of the door are four pairs of lancet windows linked by a common hood mould. The first floor contains five pointed transomed windows of two lights with cusped circles above, their heads set within coped gables. Two circular ventilation loops flank the porch immediately above ground floor window level. A string course runs just below the sill level of the first floor windows, with a moulded eaves cornice incorporating stone rainwater heads.

The left-hand link features paired lancet windows with plate-tracered quatrefoils above on both ground and first floors. The left ground floor window is placed within an imitation former doorway and has three lights divided by colonettes. Gabled attic dormers contain two lights with central chamfered mullion and plate-tracered quatrefoil to the gable.

The right-hand link has three ground floor windows of two lights with chamfered mullions and segmental relieving arches. Staircase windows to the first floor are stepped down from the left, all two lights with quatrefoil above, with heads level but sills progressively lower from left to right. A string course follows this stepped arrangement. The attic windows match those of the left-hand link.

The south-west elevation features a central two-storey range of five bays with lower two-storey single-bay flanking links. Square corner towers of four stages are marked by strings and topped with pyramidal roofs incorporating a small gable to each side. A single-storey range extends across the front, flanked by long forward-projecting wings. A central gabled doorway with segmental pointed head and iron-studded door is topped by three lancets set in the gable. The ground floor has eight pairs of lancets either side of the door, with both end bays projecting. The five central first-floor pointed windows are transomed, two lights with cusped circles above, heads within coped gables. Each flanking link has triple lancet windows to the first floor with lights separated by colonettes. The corner towers display two pointed lights with cusped circles over to the second stage, two elongated lancets with cusped circles over to the third stage, and a corbelled fourth stage with blind arcading springing from corbels. End elevations of the flanking wings are three storeys with attic, arranged in 1:4:1 bays, with projecting outer turrets topped with pyramidal roofs.

The right-hand wing has paired lancet windows with central colonettes on the four outer positions of the first three storeys. The two inner windows on the first and second floors are single lancets flanked by colonettes, positioned at different levels to the outer windows. Four gabled dormers are set in the attic; the two inner ones contain three lights all with Caernarvon arches and blind pointed arch above, while the two outer ones have four lights with blind trefoiled arch above. A 20th-century flat-roofed extension extends from the ground floor centre.

The left-hand wing fenestration matches the right-hand wing except for four-light windows to the ground floor of the right-hand turret and to the first floor of the left-hand turret. The ground floor of the recessed centre has, from left to right: a small Caernarvon arch window, a pointed door, another small Caernarvon arch window, and paired lancets.

The college was built for the Reverend Nathaniel Woodard, founder of a series of schools including Hurstpierpoint in 1851, Lancing in 1854, Bloxham in 1860, and Ardingley in 1870. The building represents a typical product of high Victorian ecclesiastical architecture.