Newnum House Brentwood School

Newnum House, Brentwood School

This house, now part of Brentwood School, comprises three conjoined units dating from around 1600, with substantial late 18th-century and late 19th-century alterations and additions. It is constructed of red brick with peg tile and slate roofs.

The building plan consists of a principal range facing the street with a projecting cross-wing at the east end, a smaller rectangular unit set back at the west end, and a long stable block projecting southward from the rear of the principal range's east end. Tall brick stacks with diagonal shafts rise at both east and west ends.

The north front elevation displays late 19th-century Queen Anne style architecture. The two-storey range with partial attics features a mid-height string course and dentilled eaves cornice. The ground floor contains three segment-headed windows with horned sashes and glazing bars: two narrow windows of 2 by 4 panes to the west and a single 3 by 4 pane window to the east, combined with a projecting ground-floor brick porch. The porch has an elliptical head, a recessed door with upper glazing of 3 by 4 panes, and glazing bars throughout. The first floor has three horned sash windows with 3 by 4 pane glazing bars.

The projecting eastern wing features large two-storey bowed bay windows with casement lights. A straight roof gable carried on prominent shaped bearers surmounts these bays. The gable is rendered with a Venetian casement window containing rectangular leaded panes and moulded barge boards. Both bow windows contain five casement lights with glazing bars: the ground floor with 3 by 5 panes and the first floor with 3 by 4 panes.

The recessed western unit maintains the same Queen Anne style with a dentilled eave. Ground and first floor windows are multiple-horned sashes with fluted pilasters between lights, all with glazing bars of 2 by 4 panes. The ground floor features a five-light window and a doorway at the west end with a flat cornice hood and boarded door with upper glazing of 3 by 2 panes. A stack with diagonal shafts penetrates the roof. At the east end, a fully glazed triangular dormer window contains a central two-paned casement surrounded by seven panes.

The rear south elevation shows the central multi-light windows on ground and first floors. The ground floor bowed window contains four casement lights with glazing bars of 3 by 5 panes each. The first floor has six casement lights slightly projecting as an oriel on shaped brackets, each light 2 by 3 panes. Between the windows, the hall is tile-hung, continuing above to a triangular rendered dormer with a double casement window with 4 by 2 pane glazing bars. A stack with diagonal shafts rises from the eastern roof pitch.

The western projecting unit's rear south side has two bays with a half-hipped gable above. The ground floor is deeply recessed on south and east sides with overhang supported on brick piers. A four-light mullioned casement window and single casement occupy the ground floor. The first floor has two horned sash windows with moulded architrave and cornice hood, each with 4 by 5 pane glazing bars. A flat-headed dormer above contains three casements. Beneath the eastern overhang, the ground floor has a plain twentieth-century three-panelled door and the first floor a multi-light casement window of 2, 3, 2 lights.

The stable block at the rear has some chequered ground-floor brickwork and a hipped slate roof. It contains five metal casement windows on the first floor plus another at half-height, and three twentieth-century doors with partial glazing on the ground floor. A short length of wall added at the south end tapers to ground-floor level. Behind on the south face is a first-floor metal casement window of 3 by 3 panes.

The east end elevation shows the house end gable, tile-hung, with a central stack rebuilt at its top but with older 17th-century brickwork below predominantly in English bond. Ground-floor brickwork both north and south of the stack is also 17th-century type. North of the stack, the upper walling of the front return has a dentilled cornice and mid-height string course. South of the stack, late 19th-century upper rebuilding is evident. A segment-headed ground-floor window of six casement lights with leaded panes has a hood mould running into the string course. The first floor has two segment-headed windows with brick rusticated reveals and sills, with depressed panels above at attic level.

The late 18th-century stable to the south has windows and door arches with excellent rubbed brick voussoirs and stone sills. The first floor contains five windows, four original sashes with glazing bars of 4 by 3 panes and one altered to casement type. The ground floor has four elliptical-headed sash windows with glazing bars of 4 by 4 panes and one twentieth-century inserted metal-framed window with 3 by 4 pane glazing bars and concrete lintel. One blocked doorway at the south end has stone imposts and a round-headed voussoir arch. A brick and stone mounting block of two steps and platform stands toward the north end.

The interior is complex and has been reorganised several times. The original structure was timber-framed in the early 17th century with some studding visible behind panelling. The roof is of side purlin type with one wind brace still evident, and features an axial ceiling joist with ovolo moulding on the first floor. The first-floor rear room contains early 17th-century panelling, approximately half original with the remainder probably from the late 19th century. A staircase to the attic retains early 18th-century turned balusters and shaped handrail, with some panelling possibly also from this period. The late 19th-century reworking added a Jacobean-style moulded plaster ceiling and completely renewed the outer front, rear elevations and stacks in fashionable eclectic style.

Originally called Shenfield House, Newnum House was purchased by Brentwood School during the inter-war period. It forms part of a group that includes Roden House, Mitre House, the monument to William Hunter, Old House, and The Hermitage.