Carswell Manor (St Hugh'S School)

BUCKLAND CARSWELL LANE SU39NW (East side) Carswell 2/65 Carswell Manor (St. Hugh's 21/11/66 School)

• II

House, now school. Early C17, extended and remodelled by William Niven c.1898. Roughcast walls; stone slate roof; stone stacks. Original L-plan extended to left in late C19. Early C17 front of 2 storeys; 2-window range of scattered fenestration, the right gable having no windows. Label moulds over 2-, 3- and 4-light stone- mullioned ovolo-moulded windows and two similar 2-light crass windows. Late C19 two-storey porch has moulded semi-circular arch over 15-panelled door with carved shell decoration to tympanum; Doric columns support projecting second storey which has similar 4-light window and moulded cornice to flat roof. Cross-gabled roof, with 3 gables to front; gabled wall to right of front has offset external stack; internal stack to rear left. Right side wall has late C19 Jacobean style canted bay window and to rear are similar late C19 ovolo-moulded windows with 3 original early C17 windows (one-light, two-light and two-light cross windows) to left of rear door. Late C19 one storey and attic, 6-window range extension to left gable wall built in similar style. To rear left is a similar 3-window range with the date 1898 set aver central bay; attached to rear of is a 5-bay Doric orangery, with central pedimented bay, of c.1898. Interior: Oak panelling of c.1898 to entrance hall which has early C18 stone bolection-moulded fireplace and early C17 open well stairs restored c.1898 and having turned balusters on closed string, square newel posts with ball finials, pendentives and, at the bottom of the stairs, carved and turned finials. Entrance hall gives access to three rooms of c.1898 in Queen Anne style and, to the rear, Early Georgian style; rear room reached by steps with twisted balusters. Between orangery and rear wing is a fine reset doorway of c.1770 with shouldered architrave and central Classical figure. First floor has details of c.1898 throughout: panelled walls to landing: Room to right, now subdivided, in Art Nouveau style with a fine fireplace. Passage behind landing and plain rooms to left give access via steps with twisted balusters swept to rear landing, which also has panelled rooms and an Ionic modillioned cornice. Late C19 roof throughout. Old prints show that before the 1898 restoration the wing attached to the left gable wall of the front was early C18, of one storey and attic and 6 bays; there was also a mid C17 four-bay wing to the rear, its 5 front gables having a central Dutch gable over the porch. (V.C.H.: Berkshire, Vol.IV, p.453).

Listing NGR: SU3261397711