Charlton Park (St Edwards School Main Building)

Charlton Park (St Edward's School Main Building)

A country house now used as a school, built in the 16th century and significantly altered in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The building is a timber-framed courtyard house constructed around 1562–8 for Giles Greville the younger. It was substantially remodelled following its purchase by John Prinn of the Inner Temple in 1701, who paid £725 for the property, then known as The Forden. The east front was enclosed in brick in 1701–9, the north front was rebuilt around 1720, and a new western block was added in 1732 (with this date recorded on a stack, on a beam in the attic, and on a chimneypiece). The house was further remodelled around 1784 for Dodington Hunt and his wife Elizabeth Prinn, when the west front was remodelled to include an attic storey and pediment, and a drawing room was inserted into the courtyard. The building was altered again around 1885 and underwent substantial changes following its conversion to a school in 1939.

The exterior is constructed of brick—burnt red to the south front and pinkish-buff to the west front—with a hipped tile roof, and areas of slates and lead. The west front displays two storeys with an attic storey, featuring eleven first-floor windows arranged in a 3:5:3 pattern with a central pedimented breakforward. The first floor contains 6/6 sash windows; the attic storey has 3/3 sashes with an oculus to the pediment; the ground floor has 1/1 sashes with louvred shutters. A central panelled door in a tooled architrave with frieze and pediment on consoles forms the entrance. A dentil cornice and blocking course complete the composition. This western block is two windows deep. The south front shows two storeys with 20th-century attic dormers, with seven first-floor windows mostly arranged as 2/2 sashes in tooled architraves with moulded sills and architraves. A rectangular bay projects at the right, and the ground floor contains 1/1 sashes. Attic roof dormers have casements. Two 6/6 sashes of around 1701 remain on the east front's first floor. The courtyard, now partly infilled by an oval room, retains two mullion-and-transom windows to its east range; the south range displays three blocked elliptically-arched openings, two with stone dressings. A plaque on the rear gable of the south wing, inscribed 'MADE NEW 1732' within a lozenge, marks the rebuilding of the stack. Some stacks feature Doric friezes and ashlar cornices.

The interior contains oak panelling, some probably from the 17th century. A Chinese Chippendale-type open-well staircase to the garden front, positioned off-centre in the hall, has a ramped handrail and newel posts decorated with fretwork, together with carved acanthus ornament to the treads. A service stair with stick balusters stands to the rear of this staircase. The early 18th-century part includes a dogleg staircase with rod-on-vase balusters, square knops, and a ramped handrail. The oval drawing room, now used as a chapel, features Neo-Classical decoration including a frieze with urns, a decorative cornice, and an oval roof light with a frieze of swags and paterae; 19th-century stained glass is present. This room occupies the original courtyard space. Four-, six-, and eight-fielded-panel doors, some in tooled architraves, are found throughout, with shutters and pull-up shutters to some windows and fielded-panel reveals to the garden front windows. The Neo-Classical part includes enriched cornices. A good marble fireplace to the left room on the garden front features a panel carved with Hebe feeding an eagle; some further eared marble fireplaces are present. In the south wing's attic, the wall plate and purlin are exposed, with the purlin dated 1732; several principal rafters and collar beams are exposed, one collar also dated 1732. A barrel-vaulted ceiling covers the cellar beneath the old range.

The house was painted by Thomas Robins around 1748 (a picture is held in Cheltenham Art Gallery), and this image shows a two-storey house with attic dormers but without a pediment, documenting the building's appearance before its final major remodelling. The property's name was changed to Charlton Park around 1784 for Dodington Hunt. A similar Chinese Chippendale-style staircase exists at Nos 34 and 34A, Bafford Lane.