Carswell Manor (St Hugh'S School)

A manor house, dating to the early 17th century, which was extended and remodelled around 1898 by William Niven and is now part of St Hugh’s School. The house is constructed of roughcast walls with a stone slate roof, and stone stacks. The original L-shaped plan was extended to the left in the late 19th century. The original front, of two storeys, has a scattered arrangement of windows, with the right gable having no windows. There are label moulds above 2-, 3- and 4-light stone mullioned windows with ovolo-moulded detailing, along with two similar 2-light “crass” windows. A late 19th-century porch has a moulded semi-circular arch over a 15-panelled door, featuring carved shell decoration within the tympanum. Doric columns support a projecting second storey with a similar 4-light window and a moulded cornice to a flat roof. The front has three gabled sections, with an offset external stack on the right-hand side of the front, and an internal stack to the rear left. A late 19th-century canted bay window is set into the right side wall, and behind it are late 19th-century ovolo-moulded windows, along with three original early 17th-century windows: a single-light window, a two-light window, and a two-light cross window to the left of the rear door. A late 19th-century, one-and-a-half-storey, six-window range extension was built on the left gable wall in a similar style. To the rear left is a similar three-window range dated 1898 above the central bay. Attached to the rear of the main house is a c.1898, five-bay Doric orangery, with a central pedimented bay. Inside, the entrance hall has oak panelling from c.1898, and features an early 18th-century stone bolection-moulded fireplace. The early 17th-century open well staircase was restored around 1898, and has turned balusters on a closed string, square newel posts with ball finials and pendentives, and carved and turned finials at the bottom of the stairs. The entrance hall leads to three rooms in a Queen Anne style, and a room in an Early Georgian style to the rear, reached by steps with twisted balusters. A fine reset doorway from c.1770 is located between the orangery and the rear wing – it has a shouldered architrave and a central Classical figure. The first floor has detailing from c.1898, including panelled walls to the landing. A room to the right, now subdivided, is in an Art Nouveau style with a fine fireplace. A passage behind the landing and plain rooms to the left lead to steps with twisted balusters sweeping to the rear landing, which has panelled rooms and an Ionic modillioned cornice. The roof throughout dates to the late 19th century. Historical prints show that before the 1898 restoration, the wing attached to the left gable wall of the front was an early 18th-century, one-and-a-half-storey, six-bay structure; and there was also a mid 17th-century four-bay wing to the rear, with five front gables including a central Dutch gable over the porch.