Gateway And Walls To Former Abbey School

The gateway and walls to the former Abbey School were built between 1864 and 1865, possibly designed by Edward Welby Pugin. They feature yellow brick with red brick bands and ashlar details. The quadrant walls on either side of the gateway are approximately 10 feet high and extend about 10 yards to the piers, though they are partly obscured by vegetation. The central gateway has a multi-order surround and a hood mould, topped with a gable that features a fleur-de-lys pinnacle supporting a bifurcated cross. There are buttresses on both sides of the gateway; the left one includes a sculpted medallion, while the right one has a statue in a niche. This gate, along with the adjacent lodges and walls, was part of a convent built for Benedictine nuns in 1864-5, which later became a boarding school for girls run by the Sisters of the Assumption from 1878.