Bilton Grange School And Attached Chapel And Terrace

Bilton Grange School and Attached Chapel and Terrace

A country house, now a school, built between 1841 and 1846 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin for Captain J. Washington Hibbert. The building incorporates a small, probably late 18th-century house and is constructed in Flemish bond brick with limestone dressings and moulded string courses. Tile roofs with ridge cresting have moulded stone coped gable parapets with finials. Brick stacks, both external and internal, with shaped and moulded shafts have limestone dressings. The building is designed in Tudor Gothic style with a complex courtyard plan, two storeys and attic.

The entrance front presents a four-window range with a wing of 1891 and chapel of 1889 at right angles on left and right respectively. A three-storey porte cochere tower with diagonal buttresses and alternating quoins dominates, featuring wide moulded arches. The entrance has a five-light window with Tudor-arched double-leaf plank doors and carved spandrels. Chamfered and moulded mullioned windows with predominantly Tudor-arched lights, transoms and hood moulds appear throughout the building. The first floor displays a two-light canted oriel with shield panel. The second floor features a stone clock in a square panel dated 1846, with frieze and cornice, flanked by small single lights. A pyramidal decorative slate roof crowns the entrance with a traceried open lantern and pyramid cap. The left range contains a ground floor four-light window with large king mullion and lozenge stops. Single lights appear on the right. The right range has an external stack with shaft removed, featuring one and two-light windows. Throughout the Pugin building, the first floor bears the initials of Captain Hibbert and his wife along with crosses executed in blue brick. A two-light roof dormer is present. A plain three-storey tower set back on the right has a three-light window to the second floor and a late 20th-century parapet.

An irregular one-window left wing of 1891, one storey with basement and attic, features buttresses and altered basement openings with cross windows. The first floor has a four-light window. An irregular three-window right return side has a porch with part-glazed double-leaf doors. The right wing contains a gabled hall range in the angle with two full-height two-light windows having two transoms and continuous hood mould.

The chapel stands to the right, with a shaped tile roof, nave, apsidal chancel, shallow transepts and east turret in Gothic Revival style. The nave comprises three bays and the chancel two bays. The ritual east end is actually oriented north-east. The apse contains five lancets with geometrical tracery and two bands of terracotta ornament. A moulded limestone sill course runs throughout, with an ornamented stone cornice. The brick and terracotta parapet features blind tracery. The shallow south transept has a small east lancet and a three-light south window with plate tracery and hood mould, topped by an ornamental stone coped gable. A square turret projects slightly. The plank door has a double-chamfered straight-headed Tudor arch with sill course forming a hood mould. A frieze of four traceried stone panels displays carved shield reliefs of the Holy Spirit and other subjects. The octagonal upper stage contains alternating long and short traceried straight-headed openings, topped with a moulded stone cap and finial. The nave features a gabled portal between two gableted buttresses with a heavily moulded stone segmental-pointed arch. Two three-light windows with tracery and transom light the nave. The north transept has three stepped lancets to the east. A high one-storey-and-attic late 19th-century irregular range stands to the right, including a bay with three-light Perpendicular window and moulded parapet, a cross window, and two large polygonal bays with a single light between. A roof dormer has a two-light mullioned window.

The south-east front features a wing at right angles on the right. The main range displays four two-storey three-light canted bays with castellated parapets. Large gabled dormers contain two-light mullioned windows. The left return side of the wing has a single light and two-light mullioned window above on the left, and to the right a large four-light window with king mullion and three-light window above. The range stands on an attached L-plan terrace of diapered brick and stone with an elaborate balustrade pierced with an inscription in Gothic script recording the date of building. Piers are carved with heraldic shields, with steps on the left. The right wing has a low link to the 1891 addition featuring a canted bay with loggia below. The 1891 range has two large canted bays of similar design to the main front. The first floor features Tudor arch sashes with a date marked in blue brick. Gables with an internal stack between complete this section.

The south-west front has a cross gable and canted bay on the right, with a large six-light window and central plank door in moulded Tudor arch. A three-light window sits above, with single lights to the left. A large three-storey late 19th-century canted bay on the left has wood cross windows with stone lintels, two-light windows above, and three-light windows to the second floor, topped by a pyramidal roof. Two two-light roof dormers are present. A lower late 18th or early 19th-century range to the left shows later alterations, comprising three storeys and three bays with a central three-storey canted bay having wooden casements. Large windows in altered openings appear to the left, while 16-pane sashes occupy the right. The second floor has four 12-pane sashes. A kitchen wing to the north-west has a massive external stack with four offsets. The outer courtyard contains a long, late 19th-century one-storey-and-attic range with a gabled roof and dormers with bargeboards. Two-light latticed windows light this range.

The interior contains exceptional Pugin work. The entrance hall features a carved arched fireplace with hood and gilded inscription, set above a heraldic encaustic tile floor. A long gallery, library and other rooms display panelled plaster ceilings with moulded wood ribs, linenfold panelling and Gothic wood doorcases and architraves. The gallery has a gilt and decorated cornice. Two fine carved and moulded Gothic fireplaces are present, one with a large plastered hood. Moulded stone Tudor-arched doorcases and heraldic glass appear throughout. The library has a gilded and carved ceiling with bosses. An elaborate carved fireplace features a wood panelled upper part with painted panels of St. Hubert and the Hibbert arms, with a painted panelled cove. Another room contains a similar fireplace with traceried rather than painted panels. The great hall features a Gothic arched brace roof with a gallery on carved octagonal shafts and panelling. An inglenook has an elaborate carved stone fireplace with half shafts and family crest, set with encaustic tiles and heraldic glass. Several fireplaces retain original fire dogs and baskets with dogs holding scrolls. An open well staircase has a linenfold panelled balustrade with brass rail and newel posts bearing heraldic beasts holding scrolls. A Gothic painted panelled ceiling with moulded ribs crowns the staircase.

The chapel interior features a braced collar roof with arched braces marking the chancel and sanctuary. The apse contains inner lancets with black granite detached shafts and radiating rafters. Brick segmental pointed arches open to the transepts. The chancel and sanctuary have mosaic floors. Fittings include a late 19th-century carved pulpit and reading desk, stalls and pews. Early 20th-century Perpendicular style memorial panels line the walls. Late 19th-century stained glass is present.

Captain Hibbert was Pugin's most difficult client. The 20th-century additions are not of special architectural interest.