Leyhill Officers' Training School

Leyhill Officers' Training School

A country house, formerly Tortworth Court, now a prison officers' training school. Built between 1849 and 1853 by S.S. Teulon for the 2nd Earl of Ducie. The building displays a mixture of picturesque and Puginesque design approaches and was one of Teulon's most important and early houses.

Construction and Materials

The building is constructed of finely coursed rubble with Bath stone dressings and quoins. The roof is plain and fishscale tiled, set behind plain and embattled parapets decorated with gargoyles and heraldic beasts. Clustered octagonal ashlar and brick chimney stacks rise prominently from the roof.

Exterior Character

The building is executed in Tudor Gothic style with 2 storeys, basements, and attics set within gables or gabled dormers with bargeboards. The east elevation is irregular and asymmetrical, while the south elevation is regular and formal.

The main feature of the east (entrance) elevation is a porte-cochere with angle buttresses and moulded 4-centred arches, topped by an embattled parapet bearing the Ducie arms and heraldic beasts. Behind it rises a 3-storey entrance tower with crested octagonal corner turrets, an embattled parapet, and 3-light cross windows with 4-centred heads, moulded mullions and surrounds. To the left of the tower is an oriel window of 1-2-1 lights with 4-centred heads, surmounted by a large gable containing a 2-light window with a diagonal shaft base breaking the apex. To the right of the tower is a 3-bay section of 2-light cross windows and a 4-light square bay window, with an oriel window on the first floor, all beneath an embattled parapet. Further right is a projecting gabled wing with corbelled-out corners and an oriel window with square-headed lights, alongside a single-storey lobby with a 4-centred doorway.

In the re-entrant angle stands a 4-stage stair tower with regular quoins and surmounted by an octagonal lantern and ogee dome, containing single and 3-light casements with 4-centred heads. A square central tower, now lacking its original cupola (which was demolished), dominates the entire composition with an embattled parapet and three 2-light Perpendicular-style windows with plain tracery.

Service wings project to the north with 2 bays of 3- and 4-light cross windows, and four 2-light windows on the first floor. A 3-stage square stair tower with pyramidal roof stands to the right, alongside a single-storey projecting wing with a 1-3-1 light bay window, embattled parapet, and coped gables with twisted shaft finials.

The south (garden) front comprises 3 bays surmounted by steep coped gables with finials and heraldic beasts, separated by embattled parapets. The centre bay is the most elaborate, featuring octagonal turrets surmounted by pierced lanterns and ogee domes with finials. A 2-storey 3-3-3 light bay window with 4-centred heads and chamfered mullions is enriched with a band of quatrefoils over the ground floor and embattled parapet. Two 2-light casements with heraldry and scrollwork between sit on the first floor. The outer bays have single-storey 2-3-2 light bay windows bearing the Ducie arms, with two 2-light cross windows with 4-centred heads on the first floor and 3-light casements in the gables above.

Interior

The lobby features a rib-vaulted ceiling with a central panel bearing the date "1850", ogee-headed niches to the corners, and Gothic-style screen doors. Most ground-floor rooms contain Gothic-style panelled doors in moulded surrounds with 4-centred heads and framed ceilings.

The Library (Dining Room) is furnished with a moulded Tudor-style fireplace with roses in spandrels and a ceiling with corbels and carved bosses. The Staircase Hall contains a large open-well staircase with a Perpendicular-style balustrade, panelled and crested newel posts supported on large corbelled and panelled brackets, galleries to the first and second floors, and a panelled ceiling with carved bosses.

The Common Room (Drawing Room) features a painted Tudor-style fireplace with quatrefoil frieze and a painted and gilded ceiling with stencilled panels bearing the Ducie crest, along with large Perpendicular-style panelled doors opening into the Games Room.

The Games Room (Library) displays Gothic-style bookshelves and a painted, gilded and stencilled panelled ceiling. Two very fine fireplaces of 3 bays feature brass twisted colonettes and arches with decorative tiles to the outer bays, and a 4-bay overmantel of twisted colonettes and brass leaf capitals. The room is divided by an arcade with a central large 4-centred arch and 2 smaller painted and gilded 4-centred arches.

The Board Room (the Earl's room) contains an elaborately detailed Renaissance-style fireplace with Ducie heraldry. The Lecture Hall (Morning Room) features linefold panelling, an elaborately detailed Jacobean-style fireplace, and an enriched ceiling and frieze with pendants and intersecting motifs.

Technical Innovation

Tortworth Court was one of the first houses to be equipped with gas lighting throughout and a hot-air central heating system. A central railway in the servants' wing carried coal to a lift for distribution.

Historical Note

The building's significance as one of Teulon's most important and early houses is documented in contemporary publications including The Builder (October and November 1853) and Country Life (May 1899).