Boyles Court

House, now school. Built in 1776 to a design by architect Thomas Leverton. The building is constructed of red brick arranged in an echelon plan, comprising a central block with deeply recessed pavilions connected by linking wings. The pavilions are deep front to back.

The roof of the central block is now flat with no chimneys, following a twentieth-century fire that necessitated rebuilding the upper structure, particularly at the front. The pavilions retain their original hipped slate roofs.

FRONT ELEVATION

The north-facing front maintains a piano nobile (principal storey) across the entire facade, with a stuccoed ground floor and brick above. The central block rises three storeys with an attic and parapet. It is five bays wide, with the central three bays projecting forward and topped by a pediment and parapet. The ground floor features a twentieth-century door with decorative ironwork flanked by twentieth-century plain fixed windows; the outer bays have sash windows with glazing bars of three-by-two panes. A deep Tuscan portico spans the central three bays, supported by six square columns and topped by a cornice with balustrade.

The first floor (piano nobile) displays three central windows with stuccoed architraves and cornices; the outer windows feature shallow semicircular-headed recessed panels with balustraded aprons. All are sash windows with glazing bars of three-by-four panes, connected by two raised stuccoed strings at their bases and heads. These strings continue across the entire frontage, defining the piano nobile. The second floor is separated from the first by a raised stucco band decorated with guilloche ornament, which continues around the sides of the central block. The second-floor windows are sashes with glazing bars of three-by-four panes. The attic above is divided from the storey below by a mutule cornice, with a central pediment containing a recessed oval panel, and outer bays with balustraded recessed panels. All brickwork above the second-storey windows is renewed.

The pavilions are two storeys high, each a single bay wide, with large Venetian windows on the first floor set within semicircular arched recesses with balustraded aprons. The windows are sashes with glazing bars: the arched heads contain one-by-three panes with three-by-three panes below. Ground-floor windows are sashes with glazing bars: the east pavilion has three-by-two panes; the west pavilion, three-by-four panes. The linking wings are single bays, with first-floor sash windows of three-by-three panes formed by paired pilasters and a balustraded parapet. The east wing has a ground-floor sash window of three-by-two panes; the west wing features a twentieth-century door with upper glazing of two-by-two panes above a lower panel.

To the east, the ground-floor podium continues as a courtyard wall of four bays, stuccoed, each with a single casement window and remains of a wall-head balustrade between bay piers.

REAR ELEVATION

The south-facing rear is now considerably obscured by twentieth-century work. The three-storey and attic central block echoes the front, with some string courses defining the central three bays. The ground floor is stuccoed, with three sash windows of three-by-four panes and two twentieth-century doors with glazed fan-lights and upper glazing. The first floor has a central recessed blind Venetian window with balustraded apron and gauged brick voussoirs, flanked by four sash windows of three-by-four panes. The second floor displays three central sash windows echoing a tripartite Venetian scheme: the centre window has three-by-four panes, the two outer windows have two-by-four panes. The outer four bays have sashes of three-by-four panes. The attic storey contains five twentieth-century two-light casement windows: one central and one in each outer bay on either side.

The link wings have two window ranges with hipped slate roofs. The first floor is defined by piano nobile stucco strings. All windows are sashes of three-by-four panes; the west wing's ground floor is covered by a twentieth-century addition. The pavilions have two window ranges and rise three storeys with central stacks and hipped ridges; the ground floor is stuccoed. The east pavilion's ground floor is obscured by a twentieth-century addition; the first-floor windows are sashes of three-by-four panes, the second-floor sashes are three-by-three panes. The west pavilion's ground and first floors have sashes of three-by-four panes, while the second floor features blind window recesses.

SIDE ELEVATIONS

The west end elevation of the central block has a three-window range continuing the front system. The ground floor has two-light casement windows offset from those above; the piano nobile's south window is blind. The attic (rebuilt to the front) contains twentieth-century two-light casement windows. The pavilion features a rebuilt south end with a blank central stack and two window range; the centre and north windows align with the piano nobile strings. The ground-floor windows are sashes of three-by-four panes; the first floor has three-by-three panes.

The east end elevation mirrors the west end arrangement for the central block: the ground floor has four-by-four panes; the second floor has two sash windows of three-by-four panes. The rear south window has slatted louvres and two small twentieth-century casements side by side. The pavilion is similar to the west elevation but with four window ranges and an external twentieth-century stack. Ground and first-floor windows are three-by-four panes; the second floor has three-by-three panes. First and second-floor windows at the south end are now replaced by twentieth-century doorways, with a twentieth-century ground-floor door below featuring two upper glazed panels and two lower panels.

The courtyard, continuing around from the front elevation, has three central openings between piers with stuccoed walling lined out as ashlar. The balustrade visible on the front elevation has been removed.

INTERIOR

The interior court contains three twentieth-century blocks. Little original work survives within the house except for a well staircase set to the rear, behind the blind Venetian window. This staircase appears to date originally to the early eighteenth century, with carved brackets at the tread ends and a shaped handrail. The balusters, now covered in, are delicate with a thin alternating pattern and carved tread ends, though these have been "reconstructed to a wrong design" according to Pevsner. The entire staircase was reorganised in the late nineteenth century, with some carving of that period, particularly on newel pendants. The staircase may be a complete early example brought in from elsewhere. Some interior plasterwork in late eighteenth-century style at the rear of the house is probably of late nineteenth-century date.