Heyle (Nak Centre)

Heyle (Nak Centre)

Country house, now in use as a residential school and home for handicapped children. Built in 1914 for Mr and Miss Cooper (brother and sister). The architect is not known, although the original architect's drawings are said to be in the possession of the owner.

The building is constructed of shale rubble with granite dressings. It has grouted scantle slate hipped roofs, some with gablets, and shale rubble chimney stacks with moulded granite caps. The rear wing is slate-hung on the first floor. The house is large and designed in a vernacular revival Tudor style.

The plan comprises a main south-facing range with a service wing at the rear of the left-hand end, returning as a housekeeper's cottage and garage on the north side of a rear courtyard. The entrance to the house is on the right-hand east side, giving access to an axial passage along the back of the main range. The main range contains a large drawing room at the left west end, partly contained in the projecting left-hand wing; the hall at the centre with a loggia in front between the left and right-hand projecting wings; and the sitting room in the right-hand wing with the stairhall behind, adjacent to the right-side entrance. The axial passage leads to the service wing behind the drawing room. The service wing returns as the housekeeper's cottage, forming the north side of the rear courtyard, which is enclosed on the fourth side by a low wall. The housekeeper's cottage range continues to the right as a garage range facing the entrance drive.

The exterior is two storeys. All windows to the main house and ground floor of the service wing have chamfered granite mullions and leaded iron casements. The south garden front has projecting wings to left and right, the ends of which are advanced with hipped roofs and 5-light mullion windows with transoms on the ground floor. Set back between the wings are two 4-light windows on the ground and first floors, the ground floor with transoms and a central doorway set behind an open-fronted loggia with one central round pier supporting a timber wall-plate and a scantle slate roof with a lead flat. This section is symmetrical, but to the left of the left-hand wing the main roof is carried down over an open-fronted (now glazed) verandah in the angle with the wing and main range, which has a gable end. The centre projects with a 5-light mullion window on the ground and first floors, the ground floor with transoms. At the back of this end is a stack corbelled out from the first floor with gableted set-offs and a circular shaft with a moulded granite cap.

The right-hand (east) return of the main range is the entrance side. Its asymmetrical elevation is dominated by a gabled stack with an oval section (round-ended oblong) shaft with a moulded granite cap. To the right of the stack is a tall mullion-transom stair window, and below to the right the main entrance has a depressed 2-centred chamfered arch dying into the tapered deeply chamfered jambs, with a slate hoodmould over the arch. Set back inside the porch is a chamfered doorway with a studded plank door. On the lintel over the door are the date 1914 and the Coopers' monogram. To the right of the entrance, a low wall steps down with slate capping; it screens the service yard behind the main range. The roof at the back of the main range facing the yard is carried down to lower eaves level and has two hipped dormers. The service wing and housekeeper's cottage form the other two sides of the yard and have slate-hung first-floor elevations with 2 and 3-light wooden mullion windows and granite mullion windows on the ground floor. The back range (housekeeper's cottage) is continued as a single-storey garage range with a hipped slate roof with a weather-vane and a screen wall in front with slate capping.

The interior is modest, with only a few alterations such as the insertion of partitions in the drawing room and between the hall and stairwell. The simple staircase has chamfered stick balusters and square newels with finials. The hall is panelled and has a Tudor-arched granite fireplace. The sitting room has a wooden chimney-piece with a bracketed shelf. The service wing has a butler's pantry with glazed cupboards, a servants' staircase, and a complete set of servants' bells in the corridor.

Heyle was formerly situated in Constantine parish before the parish boundaries were changed.