Moreton Hall And Attached Terrace And Garden And Balustrading And Steps

A country house, built around 1906 by WH Romaine-Walker for Charles Garland, now serving as Warwickshire College of Agriculture. The house is constructed of ashlar with a slate roof punctuated by ashlar stacks and is designed in a Neo William and Mary style, employing a double-depth plan with projecting cross wings.

The symmetrical facade has eight bays on the main elevation, with two-bay wings. The basement features channelled rustication and segmental-headed windows with triple keys to the architraves, containing small-paned sashes. The ground floor windows have sills, architraves with pulvinated friezes, and cornices, housing 18-pane sashes. First-floor windows have four-sided architraves, 9-pane sashes, and horned sashes with blind boxes. Dormer windows in the attic have cornices over 16-pane sashes; the wings feature windows with architraves to 16-pane sashes and richly carved cartouches in their pedimented attic storeys. The main entrance is approached by steps with balustraded handrails and bronze lamp standards with globe shades, leading to paired doors with enriched bronze screens beneath an eared architrave with an enriched frieze and a Corinthian aedicule topped with a swan-neck pediment.

The returns are similar to the front, with balustraded parapets; the left return incorporates balustraded walls to the basement area and a two-window ground-floor projection over a loggia. The rear elevation mirrors the front, with wings displaying projecting balustraded basements, steps leading to the front, and Venetian windows extending through the ground and first floors. A terrace garden features balustrading and steps on all sides.

The interior includes a great hall with a barrel-vaulted ceiling in an Edwardian Baroque style within one wing, and a dining room and library in the other. Charles Garland also commissioned the nearby real tennis court, and Romaine-Walker designed Moreton Paddox for Garland’s brother-in-law, Robert Emmett, a short distance to the east. Enriched lead rainwater heads and downspouts are present, alongside stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops.