Sherfield House School Including Attached Terrace Walling And Steps Sherfield School (Formerly North Foreland Lodge School) Including Attached Terrace Walling And Steps

Sherfield House School, Sherfield on Loddon

Originally a large house, later converted to a school. The building comprises a remodelled 1864 house (originally called Buckfield House) substantially rebuilt in 1896-9 by architects Fairfax Blomfield Wade and C Frankiss for James B Taylor, a South African diamond miner. The structure retains a Jacobean modified E-plan with Classical architectural details throughout.

The building is constructed of red brick with stone bands and window dressings, with a tiled roof featuring tall brick chimneystacks striped with stone. It comprises two storeys and attics with tiers of mullioned and transomed casements.

The entrance front displays a projecting central full-height porch and projecting south-west wing, while the north-east wing (part of the service wing) does not project as far. The central porch features a gable with an oculus to the attic and an elaborate first-floor window with curved open pediment and console brackets. Below this sits a pedimented portico with round-headed arches. The entrance is flanked on the right by a bay with triple windows and on the left by a tall mullioned and transomed triple staircase window. The south-west projecting wing is gable-ended with tiers of mullioned and transomed casements. The remains of the 1864 house are visible at the north-east end, constructed of red brick with black brick structural polychromy and sash windows.

The garden front features a corner loggia with round-headed openings (extended after 1910 and now glazed-in) and comprises six bays including two projecting gables with ball finials. Attached to the garden front are brick terrace walling with stone balustrading and stone steps. Later twentieth-century school extensions to the south-west and north-east are not of special interest.

The interior displays a sophisticated mixture of Jacobean and Wrennaissance style fittings. A fine oak well staircase features high-quality strapwork carving, dado panelling and a plaster strapwork ceiling above. The Hall Vestibule contains an elaborate wooden screen with metal grilles and marble paving.

The southern part of the Hall (later called the Sofa Hall) retains a strapwork plastered ceiling and fine oak panelling with Ionic pilasters, round-headed openings with shell mouldings and a fine marble fireplace dated 1899, featuring two paired columns and an elaborate wooden overmantel with strapwork panel and two round-headed niches.

The Old Library (originally the Billiard Room) displays early eighteenth-century style dado panelling, a marble fireplace with eared architraves and drops, and a two-panelled door. The Zodiac Room (originally the Boudoir) also features early eighteenth-century style elements including a plastered ceiling decorated with swags and the signs of the zodiac, an elaborate cornice and a fireplace with eared architraves and a swag frieze.

The Sun Room was originally an open loggia, extended after 1910 and glazed-in, now featuring a marble floor and Japanese wall paintings or wallpaper. The Gallery (originally the Drawing Room) contains two stone bolection-moulded fireplaces. The Library (originally the Dining Room) retains fine oak eighteenth-century style panelling with pilasters. The former Study displays an elaborate fireplace with rose and pomegranate motifs to the spandrels, Ionic pilasters and built-in oak shelving. The former Garden Room (later Gun Room) features a marble fireplace with eared architrave and brackets, built-in walnut cupboards and a walnut door.

The first floor retains a corner bedroom (later the Headmistress's Study) with early eighteenth-century style panelling, a green marble fireplace with Ionic pilasters and Adam details, and a plastered ceiling. Other rooms contain marble fireplaces. The building also retains the 1864 service staircase with balustered newel posts. The former Scullery and Larder retain walls lined with Delft tiles, and the basement retains wine shelves and further rooms lined with Delft tiles.

The earlier house on the site was Buckfield House of 1864. When the new house called Sherfield Manor was built for James B Taylor, part of the 1864 house was retained as part of the service wing. James Taylor later sold the house to the Liddells, who subsequently sold it to the Earl of Winchelsea. It was used as a nurses' home during the Second World War. In 1947 the Earl of Winchelsea sold it to a girls' school and it was renamed North Foreland Lodge School, taking its name from the school's original location at North Foreland in Kent, founded in 1909. At the time of inspection the building had been sold again and renamed Sherfield School.

This is a principal work of the architect Fairfax Wade, with an impressive exterior displaying a mixture of Jacobean plan and classical detailing. The building has only been substantially altered by the extension and glazing-in of the loggia in the early twentieth century and some later twentieth-century extensions (not of special interest) at the extremities. The interior, a mixture of Jacobean and Wrennaissance styles, is particularly fine and complete.