National Westminster Bank Staff College - Shrewsbury And Archer Wings, Balustrading, Walls, Steps, Gates, Gatepiers

HEYTHROP HEYTHROP PARK SP32NE 5/86 National Westminster Bank 27/08/57 Staff College - Shrewsbury and Archer Wings, balustrading, walls, steps, gates, gatepiers (Formerly listed as Heythrop House (College of St. Robert Bellarmine)

GV II

Subsidiary wings and garden features of country house. 1871 by Alfred Waterhouse for Albert Brassey; wings partly rebuilt and enlarged 1923 by Romaine Walker. Limestone and marlstone ashlar; Welsh-slate roofs. Quadrangular plans. 2 storeys. 17- and 18-window C20 fronts of Shrewsbury and Archer Wings, on opposite sides of the forecourt to the Main House (q.v.), are divided into 2- and 3-bay sections by plain pilasters supporting a stone cornice, and have 12-pane sashes with recessed architraves. Arched entrances to each wing are flanked by paired limestone Ionic columns supporting entablatures. 15- and 13-window return fronts, parallel with the Main House, have similar details but include 2-bay projections marking the ends of the forecourt ranges. C19 remaining sides of Shrewsbury Wing are in limestone: the left side including a central archway with elaborate iron gates flanked by pedimented projections; the rusticated single-storey garden front with pilasters between each round-arched window and a balustraded parapet, and including an arched entrance with paired Tuscan columns. Courtyard of Shrewsbury Wing has arched windows, stone dormers, and includes a higher section with a clock in the pediment and an ornamental weathervane. The garden front of Archer Wing, formerly the C19 conservatory, has an 11-bay front with Tuscan pilasters, paired at the ends and in the central section. Forecourt fronts of short arcaded links between Main House and Wings are probably fragments of Thomas Archer's open screen of 1705. Balustraded walls enclose the forecourt, meeting in iron gates and stone gatepiers, and extend partway along the area to the Main House linking with the steps. Similar walls linked with stone steps enclose 2 Italian gardens on the garden front, continue around 4 sections of the gravel terrace, in places forming retaining walls, and extend along both sides of a lower lawn. Balustrading and steps are probably all 19 work. Late-C20 ranges forming fourth side of Archer Wing and continuing to south are not of special architectural interest. (Heythrop Park is included at Grade II* in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: p647; VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, p135; Country Life: 28th August 1905, p270)

Listing NGR: SP3633526444