Ashdown Park

Ashdown Park is a building originally constructed as a country mansion in 1867. It later became the Convent of Notre Dame, during which time it was significantly enlarged. Currently, it serves as the Barclays Bank Training Department. The original house is two storeys high with an attic and features six windows. It is built of ashlar stone and has a slate roof, flanked by crow-stepped gables. Beneath these gables are projecting bays with five lights each on both the ground and first floors, topped with castellated parapets. The windows are thin pointed sash windows, mostly arranged in pairs, with quatrefoil openings above the ground floor windows. There is a service wing to the west, and further to the west is a later addition from the Convent period. On the east side, the house is connected to a screen that leads to the former chapel of Our Lady and St Richard, which has been converted into a lecture room. This chapel, added to the Convent in 1926, features a chancel, nave, and a south-west tower, constructed in stone with a steep slate roof in the 14th century Gothic style. Further east is another detached wing of the Convent, likely built around the same time as the chapel.