Kenward

House, now Institution. Mid-18th century, with 19th-century additions and alterations. Rendered brick with plain tile roof, probably of double depth. The 19th-century works include a parallel rear addition to the left and an added bow to the right gable end of the front range.

The building is two storeys and attics, set on a rendered plinth. A moulded rendered cornice merges with a plain rendered parapet and continues around the whole building. The roof is hipped with the left hip returning. Rear stacks stand to left and right, with ridge stacks to left and right of centre; the stack to the right is set along the ridge.

The front elevation is regular with nine windows. Six pedimented two-light dormers punctuate the roofline. The front features recessed six-pane sashes; eight tall recessed twelve-pane sashes with thin glazing bars appear on the ground floor. A regular five-window front faces left return, with three glazed and two blind windows, and a further two windows to the flush left gable end of the 19th-century rear addition. A two-storey bow to the right gable end of the front range has the cornice continued around it, three six-pane first-floor sashes and three ground-floor French windows. The central entrance has a half-glazed door with a rectangular six-light fanlight, sheltered by a porch with paired Tuscan columns, a plain frieze, and a moulded triangular pediment.

The rear range incorporates a wing to the right, slightly inset from the right end of the front range, with a shaped rear gable and gable-end stack. The central section, incorporating the staircase-hall, projects very slightly further than the wing and contains an oval light-well. A shaped gable and gable-end stack mark the right end of the 19th-century addition. A Tuscan colonnade with moulded architrave and wrought iron balcony railings runs along the right side of the rear range, returning along the rear to abut the right gable end of the 19th-century addition.

Interior features, partly inspected, preserve mid-18th-century decoration and fittings in the entrance hall, flanking rooms, staircase hall, and rear right ground-floor room. The entrance hall displays an egg, dart and acanthus-moulded cornice with Corinthian modillions, acanthus-moulded skirting-board and dado rail, and tall bolection-moulded plaster panels to the end walls, also with acanthus enrichment. The central rear fireplace has pilasters festooned in high relief, terminating in oval panels and flanked by scrolls with lions' heads; the frieze bears a pastoral relief with putti, and the moulded and enriched cornice breaks forward over the pilasters. Pelmets over windows have ogee soffits and moulded tops with segmental centre-pieces. Panelled doors with enriched eared architraves, pulvinated guilloche friezes and scrolled pediments with festooned shells at the centre flank the room.

The left room features a cornice, doorcases (one each side of fireplace and one to entrance hall) and pelmets similar to the entrance hall, moulded skirting-board and dado rail, moulded plaster panels to end walls, and window shutters. A small rear fireplace is festooned in high relief with scrolled corbels, a central panel with a face, and a moulded, enriched cornice. The right front room has moulded plaster panels and a moulded cornice extended later into the bow. The rear right room has cornice, skirting-board, dado rail, pelmets and plaster panels matching those in the entrance hall. Panelled doors to the rear lobby and front right room have enriched eared architraves, inverted scrolls to the base, pulvinated oak-leaf friezes and open-topped triangular pediments with central pedestals. The rear fireplace is scrolled and corbelled with a classical frieze and festoons, with a festooned eared and shouldered overmantel featuring an ogee base, pulvinated oak-leaf frieze and open-topped triangular pediment.

A lobby extends across the rear of the left half of the entrance hall and the rear of the right half of the front left room, with doors to each and a half-glazed door with narrow margin lights leading to a service stair-hall to the rear left. The cantilevered service stairs have moulded cheeks and non-extant balusters. A broad semi-circular rear arch to the right of the lobby opens on to the principal stair-hall, which has a coved flat-topped ceiling with an acanthus border. A cantilevered open-well staircase features barley-sugar balusters, a wreathed handrail and a ramped moulded dado rail.

The building was probably built by Sir John Shaw in 1752.