Cranwells (Formerly Summerfield School) And Attached Balustrades And Steps

Cranwells is a mansion built between 1850 and 1852 to a design by the architectural partnership of Wilson and Fuller. It was constructed for Jerom Murch, a Unitarian minister and former Mayor of Bath.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with slate roofs and moulded chimney stacks set on the side elevations behind a balustraded parapet. The large two-storey mansion with partial basement has a rectangular plan, with rooms arranged around a central hall containing a large stairwell. Extending eastwards from the north-west corner is a former palm house built to a concave-curved plan, with a later-added conservatory. Late 20th-century school buildings attached to the north side are not of special architectural interest.

The symmetrical south-facing front elevation is three bays wide with nine windows arranged around the entrance porch. The two-by-two pane sash windows with horizontal glazing bars are surrounded by moulded architraves with flush mask keystones. Those at first floor level have bracketed sills and are set beneath a modillion cornice and pulvinated frieze. A plinth encircles the entire building, and moulded string courses sit above the ground floor windows. The central bay projects slightly forward, with a laurel wreath in a tympanum and a pediment resting on paired fluted Ionic pilasters, with matching pilasters at the corners. The prostyle entrance porch has a balustraded parapet, a mutule cornice, and a triglyph frieze with motifs in the metopes similar to those found in Bath's Circus. It is supported by plain Doric columns with attached balustrades to either side, and gives access to steps leading to panelled double doors with a large light above. To the right is a lower carriage entrance leading to the courtyard and formerly to the stables, which no longer survive. This consists of a screen wall with a parapet, pediment, and frieze resting on paired pilasters, all matching the main house.

The garden elevation facing west is similar but more ornate, with shields in cartouches above the cornice and paired pilasters at the corners. A central projecting canted bay has pilasters and similar shields at the angles, with French windows opening onto a terrace enclosed by a balustrade. Attached to the left corner is the arcaded concave-curved former palm house with keystones to moulded archivolts and paired pilasters with cornices and plinths articulating five arches with later glazing. Attached to the left of the former palm house, at a right angle to the house, is a hip-roofed former conservatory added in the late 19th century. This has a cornice at the eaves and a central pediment over double half-glazed doors flanked on either side by three full-height six-by-six pane sash windows.

The east-facing side elevation has a central projecting range with a pediment above a tall Venetian window, with blind windows to the left and six-by-six pane sash windows to the right. The rear elevation, facing a service yard to the north formerly enclosed by the stables, is irregular with a number of blind windows and a later flat-roofed extension to the left.

The interior is richly decorated, mostly dating from the mid-19th century but also incorporating late 19th- and early 20th-century features and decorations. On the ground floor, a small vestibule has mahogany doors, marble floors, round-arched niches in the walls, and a coffered ceiling with decorative egg-and-dart frieze. This leads to a large reception hall, again with marble floors and a coffered ceiling with elaborate plasterwork. Its style echoes that of the exterior: it is divided into three parts by fluted Ionic columns and has arched recesses in the walls emphasising the architraves and panelled doors leading to the principal rooms, decorated above with medallions and sprays of foliage. The centrepiece of the hall is a large mid-19th-century Imperial stone staircase with scrolled mahogany handrail and cast-iron balusters, set beneath a full-height barrel-vaulted coffered ceiling. It is lit by a tall Venetian window with stained glass in the side panels, designed by Swaine Bourne & Sons of Birmingham and London and inserted in 1896.

The principal ground floor rooms include a former library, dining room, and drawing room. The former library in the south-west corner has three arched alcoves on the west side, a parquet floor, and a plain yellow marble fireplace. The dining room opposite is much more ornate and mostly of late 19th-century date, added by Campbell Cory, including a highly decorative fireplace and cornices with floral motifs. The central drawing room has similarly ornate cornices, architraves, and dado rails. Its bay windows with panelled shutters overlook the garden to the west; those to either side of the bay now have dropped sills and the central one has a pair of French doors inserted later. North of the former drawing room are two smaller rooms, now toilets and a music room from the building's former use as a school. The single-storey palm house retains its internal broad pilasters forming the arcade and its mosaic floor.

At first floor level, the landing, formerly extending the full length of the house, repeats the decorative scheme of the ground floor with paired fluted Ionic columns and pilasters. It has an elaborate Georgian-style door surround leading to the master bedroom above the drawing room. This room connects with two smaller rooms to the north, as below, one of which retains a mid-19th-century fire surround. The further bedrooms at the front retain their cornices, architraves, and panelled doors but have lost their fireplaces. The rear north side of the mansion contains the servants' rooms and stairs, with a door and stairs at ground floor level leading to a basement containing vaulted cellars.

To the south and west, the mansion is enclosed by a stone balustraded terrace. That to the south front curves inward to flank a flight of seven steps leading to the main entrance, and that to the west curves outwards with urns on the piers flanking five steps leading into the garden. On the lawn stands a mid-19th-century two-tiered pedestal-basin fountain in a circular pool, now used as a flower bed. Immediately north-east of the mansion, set into a retaining stone wall enclosing a courtyard, is a small ice house with a round-arched opening shaped by stone voussoirs. Further to the south-west of the mansion, along Weston Park East, stand a pair of stone gate piers with small pediments to each face and attached curved walls topped with a balustrade, marking the main entrance drive leading to Cranwells.

Cranwells stands in the remains of a mid-19th-century garden and park laid out on a hillside, retaining mature tree belts, a number of specimen trees, and a small lake.

The design, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1850, was probably inspired by Widcombe Manor in Bath, built around 1727, possibly by Nathaniel Ireson of Wincanton. Cranwells and its main drive are first depicted on Cotterell's map of Bath of 1852. Shortly after, a stable block and walled garden were also built. Murch, being a keen gardener and a member of the Parks Committee responsible for the creation of Victoria Park, also built a palm house overlooking a garden with a fountain, and a park served by two lodges including a small lake. The entire estate is depicted on the Ordnance Survey Town Map for Bath of 1886.

After Jerom Murch's death in 1895, the estate was bought by Saxton Campbell Cory, a wealthy colliery owner, who extensively embellished the interior of the mansion. In 1909 Cranwells was bought by Alfred Pitman, founder of the Pitman Press on the Lower Bristol Road in Bath. Sale particulars of 1909, accompanied by photographs, describe the mansion and its associated outbuildings in great detail. A series of photographs from 1901 also show the interior as improved by Campbell Cory.

In 1952 Cranwells was bought by Edward Greenland, a tobacconist and confectioner, who sold off the majority of the parkland for development. In 1961 Bath Corporation placed a Compulsory Purchase Order on the mansion to accommodate Cranwells Art Secondary School, later in the 1970s becoming Summerfield School, a special educational needs school. The walled garden, glasshouses, and stable block were demolished, and the majority of the park was built over with a new housing estate. The remaining parkland became the school's grounds, with further school buildings introduced in the later 20th century.