Oakhill St Joseph'S Preparatory School

Oakhill, now St Joseph's Preparatory School, is a mansion dating from around 1860. It has served as a preparatory school since 1937. The building is constructed of gault brick and white brick, with roofs of graded Cumberland slate. The plan is complex. The north front is the main entrance front and returns eastwards to form a half-courtyard. The house is two to three storeys high. A two-storey gabled entrance porch, with a four-centred arch for access, is situated in the north side of the main block. Above the arch is a canted oriel window. An external stack rises to the right, incorporating clustered chimney flues. To the left is a passageway with five single-light casements, and above are ranges of four single-light casements on two floors. The gabled roof incorporates a large square lantern rising from a tower, culminating in a glazed viewing room with five single-light casements on each face, topped by an ogee copper dome with a finial. A range extends to the east, also featuring grouped single-light casements. A corbelled-out oriel is in the north-west corner. This range has a Mansard roof with a rectangular lantern with four by five single-light casements, illuminating the stairwell. Garden fronts face south and west. The south front is dominated by a three-storey tower rising into the viewing room. The south face has a first-floor canted oriel, while the west face has clustered external stacks that rise in front of and block the upper windows. A gabled conservatory with a transept extends south from the tower, built on a gault-brick plinth with a timber superstructure, and incorporating a cellar beneath. To the west of the tower are two gabled ranges set at right angles to each other, with a timber verandah running along the south and west fronts. Various casement windows, oriels, and dormers are visible in the roof, as are further clustered stacks. The interior includes an entrance hall and a music room, which was formerly a billiard room, both featuring simple plaster ceilings with geometric patterns. The music room has a coved ceiling and an open timber screen at the north end. A large staircase hall features an open-well staircase with a closed string, twisted balusters, newel posts, and a ramped handrail. The main doors have linenfold panelling.