Avon Carrow

Avon Carrow is a large country house now divided into separate dwellings, located at Avon Dassett. Built in the late 19th century for Captain Boyle, it is constructed in ironstone ashlar with a moulded plinth and cornices. The tile roofs feature moulded gable parapets, and the ashlar ridge stacks have moulded string courses, cornices, and square shafts.

The building is arranged on a courtyard plan and designed in Tudor style. The entrance range is 2 storeys with an attic and comprises a 6-window range. The centre is recessed to one storey and attic, with 3 chamfered 2-light windows. Moulded 4-centred carriage arches with gables flank the centre to left and right. Higher corner pavilions of 2 windows have windows of 3 basket-arched lights positioned high up, with pyramid roofs topped by large gabled half dormers with ball finials and 20th-century casements in basket arches. Louvred square lanterns with lead bell-cast roofs and weathervanes crown the pavilions. The courtyard front is similar but features two 5-light windows to the centre. One-storey and attic wings to the courtyard have basket-arched plank doors and windows of 3, 4, and 5 lights. Further taller one-storey and attic wings have half-dormers with gable parapets and ball finials to gables and kneelers. These wings feature basket-arched doors, and their mullioned windows have hood moulds on the ground floor. All wings are regular but asymmetrical, with crenellated parapets throughout the entrance front.

The entrance front is dominated by a central 3-storey tower with a high 2-storey wing projecting forward, topped by a shallow gable parapet. The principal entrance consists of richly moulded ribbed double doors in a 4-centred arch under a straight head, with spandrels displaying quatrefoils and mouchettes. Above is a large carved panel bearing a heraldic device, initials CB and CDB, and a motto. The panel is surmounted by a large hood mould with lozenge stops, stepped up around it. A canted 2-light oriel window corbelled out above provides additional fenestration. Leaded stone mullioned windows with Tudor-arched lights appear throughout, with a sill course continued across the wall and a coped parapet above.

The tower behind contains a 3-light second-floor window, a buttress, and a single light. At the left re-entrant angle is a quadrant turret supported on corbelling and a buttress carved with an owl. The right re-entrant angle features a canted projection with a single light and a 2-light staircase window with central transom. Late 20th-century entrances inserted to left and right have panelled doors, glazed panels, and hoods, with original hood moulds remaining above. The right entrance incorporates reused Jacobean-style caryatids. A 3-light window is set above. The left angle of the courtyard has a square projection with pyramid roof and 2-light staircase window.

The garden front is an 8-window range with a one-storey one-window wing on the left, balanced but asymmetrical. The ground floor has a string course stepped up over windows as a hood mould. An entrance in the first bay features a 36-pane glazed door in a moulded architrave with a stone hood on shaped brackets. The central 2-storey tower has octagonal turrets and displays a very large 6-light canted bay with central transom, above which is a 2-light canted bay. A 3-pane glazed door appears in the right turret. The second and seventh bays have 4-lighted canted bays with string courses; in the second bay the bay is corbelled back to 3-light. Gables behind the crenellated parapet contain 2-light attic windows. The right corner has a 5-light polygonal bay corbelled back to a round 3-light bay on the first floor, with one-, 2-, and 3-light windows below. A one-storey wing has a 3-light window with hood mould. The left return side has a 5-light segmental bay and a 3-light window in the gable. A lateral stack to the rear has 2 shafts.

The interior contains notable features across several units. A central room features 4-centred arched double doors, 16th-century style panelling, and a large fireplace with stone hood. Number 12 contains a panelled library. Number 3 has a fine drawing room with painted 16th-century style panelling, a chimney breast with Ionic piers on pedestals, and a French marble fireplace recently imported. A single-storey wing displays similar painted and gilt panelling with Ionic pilasters on pedestals with lozenges, a 4-centred arched fireplace, and a panelled basket-arch to the bay with decorated spandrels. A 2-bay Gothic roof features an arched-braced truss with paired trefoiled lancets. Number 1 has fine mahogany panelled doors and Arthurian stained glass in some windows. Throughout, the building displays very high-quality joinery including bronze window catches.

Some 20th-century doors, windows, and roof dormers have been inserted. The building retains a high degree of architectural distinction characteristic of late 19th-century Tudor Revival country house design.