Ryton House

RYTON ON DUNSMORE

1725/4/10002 LEAMINGTON ROAD 31-MAY-95 RYTON HOUSE

II House, now a club. 1806-7; by Edward Gyfford for Stephen Freeman and built by a Coventry builder Richard Booth; altered in 1850 by J.L. Ackroyd of Coventry; altered and extended after 1945. Sandstone ashlar front, painted render and brick at sides and rear. Pantile nipped roof

PLAN: Square central block containing entrance and stair hall at the front and dining room behind with bed chambers above; the flanking single-storey wings have bowed fronts, the wing east contains the drawing room and the west wing the kitchens. In 1850 the wings were raised to two storeys. Single-storey additions at front, rear and sides after 1945. An Italianate style villa.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic. 1:2:1 bays. Centre with plain pilasters and stone balustrades in front of attic windows under deep eaves; ground floor garden doors concealed behind late C20 flat-roof extension. Flanking 2-storey bowed bays with stringcourses. Sash windows without glazing bars, some C20 replacement windows. At rear small square attic sashes and late C20 large single-storey extension. Single-storey wing on east side with doorway with traceried overlight. INTERIOR: Plan largely intact and many surviving original features including a fine geometric cantilevered staircase with a good wrought-iron balustrade and stick balusters to attic. Moulded plaster ceiling cornices. Joinery includes moulded doorcases and panelled doors and reeded arches on landing. Similar elliptical arches in diving room which has moulded plaster ceiling and cornice. Drawing room has moulded plaster cornice, key-pattern frieze and fluted pilasters with Composite capitals to alcove. Ryton House corresponds almost exactly to the 2 perspective views and floor plans of a house in Gyfford's "Designs for Elegant Cottages and Small Villas" [1806]. The plans of Ryton in the Warwick Records Office bear the same date. Gyfford earned his living as an accomplished, if materially poor, draughtsman working for other architects. Only one other house is known to have been built by him, Bellevue House, Walthamstow, Essex, and that was demolished in 1936.

SOURCES: Drawings in Warwick Record Office; CR350/18/1-12. Pigot's Directory for Coventry 1822-3.