Roborough Grange

Roborough Grange is a rectory, now a house, built in 1842. It is constructed of squared and coursed sandstone with tooled ashlar dressings and has Welsh-slate roofs. The building is executed in the Tudor Gothic style and comprises two storeys over a basement, arranged on an irregular square plan facing south-east.

The exterior displays the characteristic features of mid-19th-century Gothic Revival architecture. The parapeted gables have shaped kneelers, chamfered copings, and square finials at the apices with moulded bases on small shaped corbels. Chamfered corners with run-out stops and moulded cornices to hemispherical tops are evident. The rendered stone axial stacks are centrally positioned. Windows are mid-19th-century chamfered mullioned and transomed wooden frames with glazing bar sashes and returned hoodmoulds.

The symmetrical south-east garden front features two full-height projecting square bays with 3-light panels between them, and a central ground-floor carved stone shield dated 1842 in raised lettering. The north-east entrance front has a first-floor canted stone oriel window in the gable end with a double-curved moulded base, 1-:1-:1-light window with margin-light glazing bar sash to the centre and 4-panes to side lights, and moulded cornice to flat top. A gabled semi-dormer contains a 2-light window, and the set-back part contains a 2-light ground-floor window and a one-light staircase window. The central entrance features a chamfered Tudor-arched doorway with 19th-century plank door and wooden frame with splayed reveals. The gabled stone porch has 5 stone steps leading to a continuously-moulded Tudor-arched entrance with a straight moulded weathering above; the interior of the porch contains pointed segmental-arched recesses in the side walls.

The south-west garden front has a first-floor blind 2-light window in the gable end and a ground-floor projecting square bay below with 3-light window and basement 2-light window with one-light windows to the sides. A full-height projecting gabled square bay to the left has ground- and first-floor 3-light windows with a blind 3-light panel between and basement 20th-century sixteen-pane glazing bar sash. A large mullioned and transomed staircase window at the rear has 3 by 4 panes with returned hoodmould.

Two full-height wings project at right angles at the rear with external end stacks corbelled out from the first floor. The south-east wing incorporates a possible former coach house in the basement, and the north-east wing formerly included the nursery. The right-hand wing has a corbelled first-floor shallow bay window with a 2-light window, and the left-hand wing has a gabled semi-dormer with a 2-light window and two ground-floor 2-light windows. A Tudor-arched basement doorway in the gable end of the right-hand wing features 2 large 19th-century plank doors and dressed voussoirs. A small service courtyard between the wings is enclosed by a wall at the rear, featuring a chamfered plinth and coping with a central gateway having square piers.

The interior retains a largely complete early to mid-19th-century rectory plan and fittings. A central staircase hall contains a three-flight rectangular-well staircase with closed string, stick balusters, and square newel posts with chamfered corners and moulded caps with moulded pendants. The balustrade returns on two sides of the landing. A large staircase window contains engraved glass and engraved coloured glass in the margins. The ground floor has a 4-centred arched recess opposite the lower flight and a 4-centred archway beneath the staircase (formerly with a door) leading to the service rooms. A wooden inner draught lobby to the main entrance contains a pair of half-glazed doors with carved spandrels in cinquefoil-headed lower panels and a painted panelled surround with trefoil-ended panels at the top and a carved floral motif. A back staircase has stick balusters, square newel posts with chamfered corners, and a gate at the top in a Chinese Chippendale style.

The study to the right of the entrance has a painted stone 4-centred arched chimney-piece with carved spandrels and flanking hexagonal piers with battlemented tops. The dining room contains an introduced late-19th-century Jacobean or Baroque wooden chimney-piece and overmantel. The drawing room has a moulded 4-centred arched stone chimney-piece with carved spandrels, a frieze above with quatrefoiled circles, and flanking hexagonal piers with battlemented tops, together with a moulded picture rail. The library has a painted stone moulded 4-centred arched chimney-piece with carved spandrels and raised surround with flanking pilasters. Four fitted recessed wooden Gothic bookcases with shelves above and cupboards below having 2 doors are fitted with pierced cinquefoil-heads and pierced pendants with carved spandrels, and cinquefoil-headed panelled doors with carved spandrels. A moulded picture rail is present. Six-panelled doors throughout the ground and first floors have beaded-flush reveals. Windows formerly had internal shutters.

The basement contains a straight-flight service staircase with closed string and stick balusters. The kitchen has a segmental-arched fireplace with a plain architrave and mantelshelf. The dairy has slate shelves around the walls resting on brick piers and a stone-flagged floor. At the centre of the dairy is a stone salting table with an elongated octagonal top and a single central tapered square pier with chamfered corners, representing a complete example of a mid-19th-century rectory fitting.

The plan comprises a dining room to the front right and drawing room to the left, with a central staircase hall to the rear. A library is to the left, a former study to the right, and an entrance passage leads to a porch on the right-hand side. Kitchen and other service rooms occupy the basement, approached at ground level from the rear.