College House And Westbury College

College House and Westbury College originated as a 15th-century college, constructed between 1459 and 1469 for John Carpenter, Bishop of Worcester and Westbury. It was dismantled in 1643, and a house was built from the ruins in 1709. The building is constructed from red sandstone rubble with limestone ashlar dressings and a concrete tile hipped roof.

The gate tower is a square, four-stage structure with a second-stage string and a crenellated parapet. Corner gargoyles are present, and a two-centred arched carriage entrance, now with 20th-century infill, is set within a ground-floor recess. Tudor-arched windows, paired on the first and second stages, feature label moulds. A 20th-century sash window occupies a square recess on the third floor. The rear elevation contains infill windows of one, two, and three lights, some with label moulds.

A rubble screen wall extends to the left, incorporating fragments of arches. This wall includes two small, inserted, chamfered windows on the first floor, and a pointed-arched doorway with hollow-chamfered reveals. A projecting round stair turret is located on the left-hand corner, featuring slit windows and a conical ashlar roof culminating in a finial. Behind the screen wall stands an 18th-century two-storey house with 20th-century sash windows.

The interior of the gate tower reveals two sexpartite vaulted bays with bosses in the entrance passage, along with a winder stair to the roof. The house itself is largely modernised and retains few original features.

Historically, the college housed canons from Westbury Collegiate Church and was designed according to the quadrangular system common in contemporary Oxford colleges. Originally, it had four corner turrets, one other of which survives on Trym Road. William Canynges, who contributed to the rebuilding of St Mary Redcliffe, served as Dean at the college and may have participated in its construction. The college serves as an important element within the wider group associated with the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity, Church Road.