Stowe House

Stowe House, now a training centre, was built in the 1750s for Elizabeth Aston, with later additions in the early to mid-19th century and the 20th century. It is constructed of brick with ashlar dressings and has a hipped slate roof with brick stacks, arranged in an L-plan with later wings. The architectural style is Early Georgian.

The house is three storeys high with a basement, and presents a symmetrical five-window front with a central forward break. A moulded stone coping sits atop the brick basement, and a modillioned timber cornice and stone-coped brick parapet top the building; quoins are present. The entrance features an Ionic aedicule with a pulvinated frieze to the entablature and a segmental pediment, sheltering paired three-fielded-panel doors. Basement windows have rubbed brick flat arches over six-pane horned sashes; upper floor windows have sills and architraves to two-over-four-pane sashes, with four-pane sashes to the second floor, and central windows feature eared architraves, the first-floor window with scrolls to the shoulders.

The left return has a lean-to outshut with a four-over-eight-pane sash and a twelve-pane sash, and incorporates 1950s additions. The rear elevation includes a projecting wing to the right with a canted end and a cornice; its end features architraved windows, with tall ground-floor windows having eight-pane sashes and first-floor windows with two-over-four-pane sashes. The rear also features a segmental-headed entrance with a two-light leaded window above a segmental hood, and a fanlight over a half-glazed door, with a tall sashed stair window above. A hipped wing to the right has a bowed ground-floor window, a first-floor window with a Venetian sash, and a second-floor sashed Diocletian window; a smaller gabled wing is located to the left. A large early 20th-century wing to the left is constructed with brick and ashlar pilasters and a modillioned cornice, topped by a hipped tile roof. Windows have rubbed brick flat arches and twelve-pane and eight-pane horned sashes.

The interior includes a hall with a richly moulded cornice. The open well stair has a cut string with moulded tread ends, twisted column-on-vase balusters, twisted column newels, and a moulded ramped and wreathed handrail; the upper flight features baluster-on-vase balusters. Eared architraves are found around six-fielded-panel doors. A room to the left has a rich ceiling and panelled dado; niches with enriched spandrels flank the fireplace, one with a door and the other with a glazed cupboard door, with friezes to the doorcases. A room to the right has a cornice, while a room to the rear left features beams with guilloche moulding, and a room within the right wing has a rich foliate cornice.

The house was the home of Thomas Day, the eccentric author of 'Sandford and Merton', from 1770 until an unspecified date, and for a period the residence of Maria Edgeworth. It is a fine mid-Georgian house retaining many good interior features.