Meryton House (Formerly Clewer Manor)

Meryton House (Formerly Clewer Manor)

This large house, built in 1841 for Edmund Foster, is a striking example of early Victorian Jacobean Revival architecture. The date appears on the weather-vane. The building underwent alterations in the 1860s for Edmund Benson Foster (who inherited the property in 1862), further alterations in 1922, and extensive additions and modifications in 1936 when it was adapted for use by Imperial Service College. Originally a substantial private residence with associated stable and coach-house and garden walls, it later became a school.

The house is constructed of red brick in English bond with blue header-brick decoration and diaper-work, combined with Bath stone ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs. It rises to two storeys with an attic storey. The Jacobean style is expressed through multiple architectural features: a plinth; offset ashlar bands; quoined surrounds to mullioned and transomed windows; roll-moulded coping and finials to shaped gables; ashlar gargoyles; pierced ashlar parapets; and chimneys with clustered octagonal stacks.

The south-west entrance elevation displays seven asymmetrical bays. The three principal bays to the right form a balanced composition dominated by a projecting central entrance bay with a curvilinear gable. Stone steps with decorative side walls and piers lead to an internal porch featuring a four-centred arch of several orders, a dripmould, coats of arms in the tympana, and pointed-arched side-walls. Within the porch, further steps lead to a double-door with side-lights, all featuring pointed-arched panels beneath decorative etched glass (now missing from the doors). Above the entrance is a three-light oriel, a stepped three-light attic window, and a decorative initialled panel within the gable. The flanking bays each have an added two-storey canted bay window and a one-light window to the gable; that on the right was subsequently widened. Tall chimneys flank the entrance bay.

To the left of the entrance rises a tower with a swept ogee roof topped by a bracketed eaves cornice, obelisk finial, and weather-vane. The ground floor has two-light windows, with one-light windows above; windows on the two lower floors incorporate blind upper lights decorated with coats of arms. Further left stands a full-height two-storey bow featuring three-light windows with similarly decorated blind lights. The two remaining bays on the left were originally lower; they were raised by one storey, with that on the extreme left set at an angle. Both have decorative blind lights beneath mainly two-light windows.

The right return comprises three bays arranged around a central break. At the centre sits an added two-storey canted bay window, matching those at the front, with a flight of steps ascending to a French window. The bay is crowned by a shaped gable with an enlarged one-light window, a shield, and a gable stack. The flanking bays each feature a blind two-light window with decorative and initialled shields on the ground floor, and an inserted two-light window above, together with two added flat-roofed dormers.

The rear elevation shows the three principal bays on the left with shaped gables linked by a parapet. At the centre is an added two-storey canted bay window with steps up to a French window, as at the front. The flanking bays on the ground floor appear to have been rebuilt in Flemish bond brickwork, featuring six-light windows with king mullions and two-light windows above; one-light windows to the gables have been enlarged, with that on the left now serving as a fire exit with a metal stair. A wing set back to the right, formerly of two storeys, has been raised to three storeys and is arranged in 2:3 bays, with those on the right canted. The ground-floor windows have blind, decorated upper lights as seen elsewhere. At the centre of the canted bay is a three-light window dating from the 1860s, which features a decorated stepped panel above bearing a shield initialled 'EFB' with flanking serpents.

Extensive twentieth-century wings extend to the north-west of the main house, enfolding the former stable and coach-house. Constructed in the same materials as the main house and in similar though plainer style, these form a two-storey L-shaped range. The former stable faces west and the coach-house is positioned at right angles to the rear left. The stable comprises six bays arranged 1:2:1:2, with the single bays projecting and gabled; the right bay originally featured a four-centred-arched throughway. Gable slits and one segmental-arched window survive on the left bay, though the rest has twentieth-century windows and a forward extension. The coach-house, viewed from the inner courtyard, has a projecting three-storey tower with a pointed-arched former entrance, a first-floor window beneath a dripmould, a recessed panel with a twentieth-century clock-face above, and a former cupola since removed. The three bays to the right originally had wide coach entrances below a moulded bressumer, with two windows above breaking the eaves under gablets; the right-hand gable is crow-stepped.

A small section of the original circa 1841 brick stableyard wall survives, featuring offset pilaster buttresses, stepped roll-moulded ashlar coping, and a triangular-headed pedestrian entrance. Twentieth-century walling connects this to another similar section, with walls sweeping down to a projecting panel capped by a shaped gable containing a similar entrance.

The interior of the house displays particularly elaborate detail on the ground floor, with panelled doors, architraves, panelled reveals, window shutters, panelled cupboards, simply-moulded cornices, and fireplace surrounds throughout. Ground-floor doorways are treated more elaborately, featuring panelled reveals, engaged fluted columns with Composite capitals, and modillion cornices. The entrance hall, stair-hall, and former drawing-room have applied plaster panelling; the entrance hall, stair-hall, small former sitting-room (at the front of the house), and former dining-room feature coffered plaster ceilings with panelling and finials, with the dining-room ceiling being particularly richly detailed.

The former dining-room features a panelled dado with marble insets; engaged fluted columns with Composite capitals supporting segmental arches with decorative strapwork in the tympana; and a marble fireplace with baluster-like columns, a fluted frieze, a moulded ledge, and a mirror over in a strapwork-decorated architrave. Decorative strapwork ornaments the window surrounds. The former drawing-room extends the full depth of the house and displays fluted pilasters with Composite capitals supporting a frieze with embossed flowers and a deep moulded cornice. Its marble fireplace features pilasters adorned with classical female figures on pedestals, and a frieze displaying a recumbent female figure with trailing leaves. The stair-hall has similar pilasters, a coved ceiling, and etched glass to a window above. The Jacobean-style wooden stair features an open string, turned balusters, a moulded handrail with a curtail, panelled newels with knob finials, and a first-floor mirror flanked by a recess and door, all featuring round arches with decorative modillion-bracketed open pediments.

This is a good early Victorian Jacobean-style house that retains much of its original character.