St Dunstans Abbey School And Attached Road Frontage Walls

PLYMOUTH

SX4654NW NORTH ROAD WEST, Stonehouse 740-1/56/824 (North side) 01/05/75 St Dunstan's Abbey School and attached road-frontage walls (Formerly Listed as: NORTH ROAD, Plymouth St Dunstan's Abbey School)

GV II*

Abbey school. 1850 by William Butterfield. MATERIALS: Plymouth limestone rubble with yellow stone dressings; dry slate roofs with exposed rafter ends and crested clay ridge tiles; louvred triangular ventilators near the ridge; half-hipped dormer windows breaking the eaves of the main block; hipped roof to near-central wing; outbuilt rubble lateral and gable stacks with dressed stone shafts, some round, one octagonal. STYLE: Gothic Revival. PLAN: overall an F-shaped plan, the shaft of the F forming the road frontage, a deep wing at right angles behind the left-hand side and a shorter wing at right angles to rear right of centre. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; long road-frontage elevation with tall plinth and 2-bay gable end of cross wing on the left. Mostly 3-light windows with lancets, the dormered windows with transoms; some lights with trefoil heads. Pointed-arched doorway right of cross wing. Courtyard elevation of main block has central semicircular entrance turret with porch roof projection carried on moulded corbels. There are 2 pairs of flanking 3-light dormers and similar dormers left of the wing. There is a C20 conservatory in front of most of ground floor and returning to the wing. Cross wing has similar detail to its courtyard elevation but its opposite elevation facing south-west has a series of 7 pairs of close-set lancets under the eaves and 4 pairs of lancets to the ground floor. Right of this is a single lancet to each floor and a small square window to ground-floor right. INTERIOR: not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: tall rubble wall to road frontage; blocked gateway to SW corner with 1 dressed stone pier with squat pyramidal cap. An outstanding example of Butterfield's work. See Pevsner for further details of history. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 659).

Listing NGR: SX4687954927