Stapenhill

House. Built in 1900, designed by Ernest Charles Shearman, with minor later alterations.

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION Red brick in Flemish bond with roughcast and tile-hanging; clay tile roofs.

PLAN AND LAYOUT The house is virtually rectangular on plan with a shallow gabled cross wing on the north-east side. The south-west elevation features an entrance porch leading into an entrance hall with a stair to the left (now concealed by a modern partition). The ground floor contains a drawing room, library and dining room on the south side, with a kitchen and scullery in the north-east wing. Five bedrooms and a bathroom are arranged around the stair landing.

EXTERIOR FEATURES The design shows Arts and Crafts influence throughout. Timber casement windows with leaded lights are featured across the building. The south-west elevation is dominated by a broad sweeping gable end and tall stack. A recessed porch sits beneath a broad Gothic arch, containing an eight-panelled door with a stained glass upper panel. Two first-floor windows at different heights — one segmental and one rectangular — occupy this elevation. The south-east elevation comprises three bays with canted bay windows featuring moulded mullions and transoms, a central French window, and large gabled dormers. The north-east elevation displays paired casements irregularly distributed, with roughcast applied to the upper part of the attic gable. Adjacent to the gable, the roof of the cross-wing side sweeps down over two ground-floor projecting bays, with a tile-hung dormer. The north-west elevation has the upper part of the cross gable tile-hung, the first floor of the next bay also tile-hung, beyond which the roof slopes on three different planes, terminating in a large stack.

INTERIOR FEATURES Eight-panelled hardwood doors to the ground floor rooms match the style of the front door. The stair, now enclosed behind a modern partition, features square balusters and unusual triple newel posts on the landing. The drawing room contains a chimneypiece set at an angle with a timber overmantel; the fire surround is concave with coloured small enamelled glazed tiles and an original grate. An open timber stair to the attic is located on the south side of the landing. The attic door is made from reused and cut-down 17th-century panelling. The attic itself is an interesting space arranged in the manner of a long gallery. The house retains a wealth of original joinery and fittings throughout, including well-crafted and unusual panelled doors, the stair, and several chimneypieces, some featuring good Arts and Crafts tiles.

HISTORY Stapenhill was originally named Byrnelmscote. Shearman designed it in 1899 for his mother, and purchased the freehold in 1907, living there until his death in 1939.

Ernest Charles Shearman (1859–1939) was articled to Charles Barry Junior from 1876 to 1888. From 1888 to 1891 he served as architect to the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway and undertook considerable work — railway, ecclesiastical and domestic — in Argentina during his short stay. His catalogue of works in Britain is relatively limited. Shearman specialised in Anglo-Catholic church design, developing a characteristically austere, boldly-massed brand of continental brick Gothic, including St Silas, Hampstead (1911–13); St Barnabas, Ealing (1914–16) and St Francis of Assisi, Hounslow (1933–5).