Colston'S Preparatory School, Stapleton Park, The Old Rectory

Colston's Preparatory School, located in Stapleton Park and originally known as The Old Rectory, is a house that has been converted into a school. It dates from the mid-19th century and features a rendered exterior with Bath stone ashlar dressings, brick elements, offset gable-end stacks, and a double-pile roof covered with fishscale slates. The building has a double-depth plan and stands three storeys high, with a three-window range and a single-storey, one-window range extension on the left.

The prominent central porch has battered sides and features a Tudor-arched door with wide splayed reveals, a hood, and a glazed door. Flanking the porch are deep Tudor-arched windows with narrow lights. To the right, there is a ground-floor bay with three casement windows that have horizontal bars. The other windows in the building are three- and four-light casements, each with drip hoodmoulds. At the rear, there is a full-height bay on the left, which includes decorative glazing bars, a tall central stair light, and a first-floor oriel window supported by moulded brackets.

Inside, the wide hall boasts a stone and encaustic tile floor along with panelled walls. There is an open-well staircase at the rear featuring barleysugar banisters, grouped in fours at the newels, a panelled soffit, a three-bay screen at the top of the stairs, and a moulded frieze and ceiling rose above. In the extension, there is a reset early 18th-century oak dogleg stair with heavy square newel posts topped with pendant pyramids, and square, moulded balusters.