Binswood Hall North Leamington School

Binswood Hall North Leamington School

This is a school built in 1847–8 by DG Squirhill of Leamington, designed in the Tudor Revival style. The building has undergone later additions and alterations, including a chapel added to the rear around 1867 with stained glass in the apse by Holland of 1858, and a gymnasium added in 1893.

The main structure is constructed of pinkish-red brick with purple brick and ashlar dressings, beneath Welsh slate and lead roofs. The building presents as 2 storeys with 9 bays to the front, a basement to the left, and a further entrance range also to the left, with 3 extensions to the rear.

The main range features a single-storey arcade projecting to the centre across 7 bays. Tall octagonal turrets rise at the second and eighth bays, with outer gable-ended bays flanking them. The plinth is chamfered with a continuous moulded sill band. Offset buttresses between bays are topped with pinnacles. The facade displays diaper pattern brickwork throughout.

At ground floor, a projecting central entrance has 4 steps leading to 4-centred arched double doors with linen-fold panelling and traceried decoration to the head. The surround is a 4-centred arch with roll-moulding and quatrefoil decoration to the spandrels. The hoodmould has face stops depicting Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Thomas More, with angle buttresses and an upshot bearing the Jephson arms. The arcade features buttresses and battlements, with four 3-cusped-light windows in straight-headed quoined surrounds. Single lights light the turrets. The outer bays contain 4-cinquefoil-light windows with straight-headed surrounds, above which are blind arcades displaying coats of arms of benefactor families: the Willes, Wise, and Fontayne-Wilson families.

The first floor has tall 6-light windows to the centre range in two stages with perpendicular-type tracery and a continuous hoodmould. The turrets have lancet lights in double-chamfered surrounds with continuous hoodmoulds on 3 sides. The outer bays have 4-light windows with perpendicular-type tracery in straight-headed surrounds, with continuous quoined surrounds rising through both ground and first floors. Battlements crown the centre range, while the turrets have ogeed tent roofs and the end bays terminate in pointed gables with carved plaques. Chamfered copings run throughout.

The range to the left contains an entrance with glazed doors in a chamfered surround with hoodmould, and a first-floor casement window with gable copings.

The rear chapel is 2 storeys with 5 bays and an apse. At ground floor, casement windows have double-chamfered, 4-centred-arched surrounds. The apse features a blind arcade of pointed arches with inserted casements. Buttresses between the bays support the first-floor projection. The first floor has 3-light windows with transoms and perpendicular-type tracery to the heads in 4-centred roll-moulded surrounds across the 3 centre bays, with a lancet window to the end bay which is otherwise blind. The apse contains 2-cusped-light pointed windows in roll-moulded surrounds.

The interior of the main range contains a narrow openwell staircase with alternately turned and stick balusters and a wreathed handrail. The main hall measures approximately 30 metres by 10 metres, with a roof of 6 richly carved bays on corbels. The dado features linen-fold panelling with a continuous cornice above. Three pointed-arched openings with head-stops representing Wycliffe, Harvey, Newton and Chaucer open to the space, with quatrefoils to the spandrels, alongside cambered-arched openings to cloisters.

The first floor contains a former original chapel to the left with a moulded cornice, dado rail and 3 arches (2 blocked) on columns. An added former chapel to the rear has blind tracery to a gallery balcony and roll-moulded window surrounds. The apse has a 4-centred hollow-moulded arch with column shafts and brattished capitals, while pointed-arched double doors have linen-fold panelling.

In 1844 a company was formed to establish a college. By 1846, larger premises were required, and the foundation stone was laid on 7 April 1847 by Dr Jephson. The building opened on 1 August 1848. From 1903 to 1916 it was occupied by the Society of the Sacred Heart, a French Catholic convent school. During the rest of the First World War it was occupied by Dover College, and from 1922 onwards it again housed Leamington College. Notable old boys include the writer Lytton Strachey, poet DJ Enfield, Sir Frank Whittle (inventor of the jet engine), and international rugby player Keith Savage.