Kneesworth House School

TL 3444 TL 3443 BASSINGBOURN-CUM-KNEESWORTH OLD NORTH ROAD (East Side) 16/65 21/65 17.10.84 Kneesworth House School II

Country house. 1901-1906 dated sundial. Neo-classical style, by Roland Plumbe for Lord Knutsford. Dark red brick with lighter brick dressings and quoins and gauged red brick. (Limestone portico and verandah). Plain tiled flared mansard roofs. Two storeys and attics. Irregular plan, main north-south block with symmetric projecting bays and wings. Porticoed entrance in north elevation and in angle with service wing to north-east, verandah across south elevation. West elevation: Symmetrical nine 'bays' with three 'bays' on either side of main garden entrance slightly advanced, and with further three 'bays' recessed as a wing to the north; two symmetrically positioned stacks with blind brick arches. (Service block of seven bays to north-east). Deep modillioned eaves cornice, rusticated brick quoins, brick plinth. Garden entrance with double glazed doors, patterned cast iron glazing bars to semi circular fanlight with moulded segmental hood on carved brackets. Eleven ground floor and twelve first floor hung sash windows with twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four panes in cambered gauged brick arches. Three large hipped dormer windows with casements flanked by two four-light casement dormer windows with segmental pediments over central lights: two small dormer windows to north wing. Entrance portico, to north semi circular in plan with flat copper covered roof, deep moulded cornice and panelled parapet supported by lonic capitals. Verandah to south with similar details. Interior: Pedimented eared doorcases with panelled mahogany doors; windows with moulded cases and shutters; painted wooden chimney piece in garden room with fluted, paired Ionic capitals; Queen Anne style staircase and landing balustrade; deep moulded cornices with egg and dart and dentil enrichments. The house was built on the site of the original hall sold in 1897 to Sidney Holland, later Lord Knutsford. In 1948 it was opened as a boys' approved school which was transferred in 1967-8 to Cambridgeshire County Council.

VCH Vol VIII p.51

Listing NGR: TL3505744026