Heywood House

HEYWOOD HEYWOOD PARK ST 85 SE (north side) 4/189 Heywood House GV II* Country house, now offices. 1837 on site of earlier house by Harvey Eginton of Worcester for H.G.G. Ludlow. Limestone ashlar, Welsh slate roof with octagonal ashlar stacks. Jacobean style in E-plan. Two-storey and attics, 5-window front. Central 2-storey porch with Tudor-arched openings and hoodmoulds, first floor oriel with open parapet, shaped gable, unusual free-standing octagonal 'minarets' and square clock tower behind gable, bays either side have 6-light mullioned and transomed casements to ground and first floors, flanking wings have 2-storey canted bays with 4-light mullioned and transom windows with open parapet, 3-light attic mullioned windows in shaped gables with corner stacks. Right return has square porch, various ovolo-moulded mullioned casements, group of four large stacks to left. Left return has large external stack with offsets, similar windows. Rear has single- storey service range to left matched by single-storey billiard room to right, linked to main range by corridor with Tudor-arched doorway and cross windows with leaded lights, west end of billiard room has ribbed doors and 3-light Tudor arched window, front has mullioned and transomed windows. Centre of main range to rear has gabled stair turret with oriel window, cross windows either side, shaped attic gables. Interior: Plaque recording building of house inside porch. Fine interior retains high quality original fittings; large central hall with C17-style stone fireplace with strapwork overmantel and Doric columns to entablature, rib-panelled ceiling, Tudor-arched opening with cusped spandrels leading to rear stair hall - early C18 style open-well stairs with barleysugar balusters, carved tread ends, with ribbed ceiling. South west room has good gilded strapwork-decorated plaster ceiling and matching fitted cupboards. Former dining room in south east corner has reset C17 panelling with strapwork carving. Billiard room has 5-bay arch-braced collar truss roof. Good joinery throughout house; 8-panelled doors in moulded architraves with attached shafts to ground floor, some Tudor-arched doors with cusped panels. Back stairs in C18- style slightly altered to accommodate fire precautions. Conservatory attached to left, timber and cast-iron on ashlar plinth with missing glazing, cast-iron ridge cresting to hipped roof. (The Builder, 1849, Vol 101)

Listing NGR: ST8758253461