Ardenhurst Preparatory School

HENLEY-IN-ARDEN

SP1465 STRATFORD ROAD 652-1/11/119 (West side (off)) 02/08/72 Ardenhurst Preparatory School (Formerly Listed as: HENLEY-IN-ARDEN Ardenhurst)

GV II

Formerly known as: Arden House STRATFORD ROAD. Private lunatic asylum, now school. c1820, with c1880 addition. Stuccoed brick, rusticated to ground floor with painted brick returns; hipped Welsh slate roof with internal and return lateral stacks. Double-depth plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; symmetrical 3-bay range. Plat band over ground floor; top frieze and wide eaves soffit; bays articulated by large fielded panels supporting paired fielded-panelled pilaster strips to first floor. Entrance in recess behind 2 Doric columns, doorcase flanked by pilasters, overlight with decorative glazing bars to paired 2-panel doors. Ground floor has tripartite windows with 2/3:8/12:2/3 sashes; first floor has windows with 8/12 sashes. 3-window left return (garden front) has central bow with 3 small-paned windows and wrought-iron balcony above; entrance with paired half-glazed doors to right; windows have 8/12 sashes. Rear wing has brick flat arches over 8/12 sashes and 4/8 first-floor sashes; small re-entrant block to right and stuccoed end cross-wing with gable over 8/12 sash to ground floor and large panel above. Rear has sashed windows and attached single-storey late C19 classroom range with gableted round-headed windows; similar windows to 2-storey cross-wings. Left return has glazed single-storey connecting block to late C20 wing in similar style. Cross wing has some margin-light sashes. INTERIOR: stair hall has cornice in form of soffit to Greek Doric cornice and cantilevered staircase with cut string and bobbin-turned balusters with central cubes; landing has architraves to plain doors, and ceiling with fluted coving to octagonal lantern with plaster frame with Vitruvian scroll and anthemion corner motifs. Some rooms with early C19 fireplaces, one front room has mid C19 oak fireplace with rich carving, applied half-balusters, enriched frieze with raised central panel and overmantel with relief scene of a Civil War incident and flanking foliage and linenfold panelling, possibly the work of Willcox of Warwick. HISTORY: the house was built as a lunatic asylum for TJP Burman (d.1840) and was used as such until 1876, when it became a school. Henley in Arden, with Wootton Wawen, was an important centre for private asylums in Warwickshire, and is connected with the work of Dr John Conolly (1794-1866), pioneer of humane treatment of the mentally ill, who was visiting physician from 1823. (Cooper: Henley-in-Arden: 98-9).

Listing NGR: SP1484865188