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

This National Westminster Bank Staff College comprises subsidiary wings and garden features of a country house at Heythrop Park, built in 1871 by Alfred Waterhouse for Albert Brassey and partly rebuilt and enlarged in 1923 by Romaine Walker. The Shrewsbury and Archer Wings stand on opposite sides of the forecourt, facing the main house.

The Shrewsbury and Archer Wings feature 17- and 18-window fronts of the 20th century. These are divided into two- and three-bay sections with 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. Return fronts, parallel with the main house, display similar details. Original 19th-century limestone sections of the Shrewsbury Wing include a central archway with elaborate iron gates flanked by pedimented projections, and a rusticated single-storey garden front with pilasters between round-arched windows and a balustraded parapet, incorporating an arched entrance with paired Tuscan columns.

The courtyard of the Shrewsbury Wing has arched windows, stone dormers, and a higher section with a clock in the pediment and an ornamental weathervane. The garden front of the Archer Wing, originally a 19th-century conservatory, has an 11-bay front with Tuscan pilasters, paired at the ends and in the central section.

Sections of arcaded links between the Main House and Wings are likely remnants of Thomas Archer’s open screen from 1705. Balustraded walls enclose the forecourt, meeting in iron gates and stone gatepiers, extending partway to the main house and linking with the steps. Similar walls with stone steps enclose two Italian gardens on the garden front, continue around four sections of a gravel terrace, acting as retaining walls in places, and extend along both sides of a lower lawn. Balustrading and steps are believed to date from 1900. Later 20th-century ranges forming the fourth side of the Archer Wing are not considered to be of special architectural interest.