St Dunstans Abbey School And Attached Road Frontage Walls

St Dunstan's Abbey School, built in 1850, is located on North Road West in Stonehouse, Plymouth, and was designed by William Butterfield. The building is constructed of Plymouth limestone rubble with yellow stone dressings, featuring dry slate roofs with exposed rafter ends, crested clay ridge tiles, and louvred triangular ventilators near the ridge. Half-hipped dormer windows break the eaves of the main block, while a hipped roof covers the near-central wing. The building has outbuilt lateral and gable stacks, some with round or octagonal dressed stone shafts.

The architectural style is Gothic Revival. The building's plan is generally F-shaped, with the central section forming the road frontage, a deep wing at right angles to the left, and a shorter wing at right angles to the rear right. The two-storey road-frontage elevation features a tall plinth and a two-bay gable end to the cross wing on the left. Most windows are 3-light designs with lancets; some dormer windows have transoms, and some lights have trefoil heads. A pointed-arched doorway is located to the right of the cross wing. The courtyard elevation of the main block has a central semicircular entrance turret with a porch roof projection supported by moulded corbels. Dormers are present on the courtyard elevation, and a 20th-century conservatory now occupies the front of most of the ground floor, extending around the wing.

The cross wing's courtyard elevation mirrors the detail of its other sides. However, its south-western facing elevation has a series of seven close-set lancets under the eaves and four lancets on the ground floor. To the right of this are single lancets on each floor, and a small square window on the ground floor. The interior of the school has not been inspected.

A tall rubble wall runs along the road frontage, and a blocked gateway is situated at the south-western corner, featuring a dressed stone pier with a squat pyramidal cap. This is considered an outstanding example of Butterfield’s work.