Burys Court and attached walled garden

Burys Court is a country house, now in use as a school, built in 1876 in Neo-Jacobean style for Edward and Georgina Charrington of the Charrington brewing firm. The architect is unknown.

The building is constructed mainly of red brick with some grey brick diaper work and Bath stone dressings, but features timber framing and decorative plasterwork to the south-east elevation. The tiled roof is punctuated by numerous clustered tall brick chimneystacks. The fenestration is irregular, comprising mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements.

The plan is roughly L-shaped, comprising mainly two storeys and attics. The principal rooms are positioned to the south-west, with an attached projecting service courtyard to the north-east and an attached rectangular walled garden to the east.

The north-west entrance front is asymmetrical. Its principal feature is a full-height projecting entrance porch embellished with a stepped gable displaying a cartouche and flanked by obelisks, with elaborate offset buttresses. The porch has a three-light casement to the upper floors with a pediment to the attic window. The round-headed arched doorcase has an enriched keystone dated 1876 on shields in the spandrels and double doors with strapwork motifs. The attic storey has two dormers with curved gables featuring mini-obelisks and ball finials. To the left is a projecting two-storey bay under a curved gable, and further left is the projecting two-storey service wing with an external brick chimneystack and pedimented semi-dormer to the south-western return. The north-west side displays four gables and a further external chimneystack.

The northern end of the south-west side is of red brick with a moulded brick chimneystack, which separates an opening on the ground floor. The southern part features timber-framing with plastered infill and includes high-relief pargetting between ground and first floors, with two gabled dormers with pendants.

The south-east garden front projects to the west and comprises five bays: three two-storey canted bays divided by smaller casement windows. This section is timber-framed with plastered infill and includes a high-relief plasterwork band. The plasterwork to the central canted bay features sunflowers, the Charrington shield and armorial devices. The side canted bays have phoenixes bearing cartouches with the respective initials of the owners, EC and GC, and the date 1876, flanked by side panels with sunflower motifs. Three gabled dormers with pendants crown this elevation. The north-western return has an external brick chimneystack with an attached entrance fitted with a ribbed plank door. The eastern side of the south-west elevation is set back with a gable and external chimneystack displaying diaperwork and a sundial to the first floor. The sundial bears the Latin motto 'SOL LUCIS FRUCUMQUE PARENS SOL ARBITER ANNI'.

The walled garden is attached to the north-east of the garden front. A tall wall of diaper brickwork adjoins a rectangular-shaped walled garden constructed in English bond brickwork. This incorporates a pedestrian entrance on the north-west side with brick gatepiers surmounted by stone ball finials and an elaborate wrought iron gate incorporating the letter 'E' and a swan.

The interior retains significant original features. The staircase-hall displays a strapwork design plastered ceiling and full-height plank and muntin panelling with bracket cornice, a frieze of lozenges, fluted pilasters and a stone fireplace with Atlantes. A series of nine-panelled oak doors lead from this room. The staircase itself has turned balusters and chamfered newel posts with urn finials and an upstairs gallery. The large staircase window retains coloured marginal glazing and hexagonal panes.

Edward Charrington's study, currently a staff room, features an ovolo-moulded cornice and a large segmental recess incorporating a central carved stone fireplace with end balusters, decorated spandrels and tiled interior, flanked by two round-headed niches. The dining room has a stone fireplace with elaborate triglyph decoration, Ionic balusters and figurative tiles. Panelling rises to plate-shelf level with lozenge pattern decoration above the fireplace. Above the plate-shelf is later 19th-century wallpaper decorated with cherubs and swags. The wooden window shutters survive.

The music room, possibly originally the drawing room, has an elaborate plaster cornice, stained glass to the upper part of the windows and a fireplace with side balusters and floral tiles. A room to the north-west, possibly originally a morning room, features an arched alcove and a marble fireplace with blue floral tiles.

The service wing retains a set of servants' bells to the corridor. The kitchen retains a large open fireplace and some 19th-century shelving. The larder retains slate shelves. Some service rooms retain simple fireplaces. On the first floor the plastered ceiling above the main staircase was replaced in the late 20th century, but an adjoining room retains its original plastered ceiling. Some bolection-moulded fireplaces survive, one of which is marble-lined with blue floral-patterned tiles. Narrower staircases lead to the attics.