Stanley Park

Stanley Park is a large country house, now converted into flats, situated in King’s Stanley, Selsley West. The original core of the house dates to 1584 but was extensively rebuilt in 1850 and enlarged in 1870 for S.S. Marling.

The house is constructed of ashlar limestone with some roughcast render, and features ashlar chimneys, a flat lead roof, and plain tile roofs. It is built in a Tudor Gothic Revival style. The plan is irregular, incorporating elements of the 16th-century house, with a predominantly three-storey design and a basement. A ballroom wing extends to the north.

The south front is symmetrical, dominated by a central projecting tower. The tower’s base contains a Tudor-arched porch, and above it is a two-storey oriel window. The doorway is inscribed with the Latin phrase 'MIHI VOBISQUE'. Above the machicolated eaves of the tower is a low, square spire with a small timber lucarne on each side. The main elevation has a four-window arrangement, with mullioned and transomed windows and hoodmoulds. Canted two-storey bays flank the outer positions, each topped with crenellated parapets. Octagonal corner buttresses support pinnacles and a continuous crenellated parapet.

The east side mirrors the south front. A parapet-gabled end of the 16th-century house is visible at the centre, with scattered windows. A basement window has three lights, is recessed and chamfered, and bears a datestone inscribed 1584. 19th-century windows are present on the ground and middle floors, while an original attic window with two lights, hoodmould, and leaded casement is also visible. A 16th-century wing extends to the right, its north-facing, parapet-gabled end having been extensively rebuilt with a large, mullioned and transomed canted oriel incorporating a datestone SSM 1850.

The north side features a projecting high-roomed wing with tall, mullioned and transomed windows and octagonal buttresses with pinnacles and crenellated parapet. A central bay with a crow-stepped gable has a projecting balcony supported by large brackets carved with realistic foliage, and bears a datestone SSM 1870. An octagonal stair turret with a conical coped roof is positioned on the west side of this wing.

The west side has a mixed arrangement of windows, including part of the original west end of the 16th-century house, which has a two-light casement dated 1584. A tall square tower with a crenellated parapet and tall round-arched windows is also present.

Interior features include a fine staircase with two barley-sugar balusters per tread, which appears to be of 18th-century date. Extensive panelling may also be earlier than 1850. The staircase hall was altered during conversion, but a 19th-century painted glass skylight survives. The house forms part of a group with Stanley Park Lodge, and together contributes to the High Victorian silhouette of this part of Selsley West.