Colehayes Park Hotel

Colehayes Park Hotel

A mansion, now a Field Studies Centre, dating from the early 19th century with later additions. The building is constructed of granite ashlar under slate roofs.

The main block, positioned to the left, follows a double-depth plan and is Neo-classical in character. To its right, beyond a small court, a slightly Italianate block was added; this court was infilled by the middle of the century.

The principal front is symmetrical and two storeys high, articulated by clasping pilaster strips, deep eaves, and a low-pitched hipped roof with two spans and lead roll ridges. A striking feature is the central group of eight closely spaced square stuccoed chimney stacks linked by a common cornice, with matching groups of three stacks aligned at the foot of the two right-hand roof hips.

The centrepiece is a Greek Doric porch of slight projection, distyle in antis, with entablature and blocking course. The porch features monolithic unfluted granite columns, and its solid flank walls have half pilaster responds set against the facade. The central front door is contained within this porch.

The infill block to the right is also of granite ashlar, lapping the right-hand pilaster of the main block. It has a symmetrical two-storey facade, two windows wide and projecting by one window's depth, with a plain frieze, cornice, and blocking course concealing the roof.

Beyond this, set back and against the infill, is the end of what was probably originally a service wing. This is three storeys high, constructed of granite ashlar, with a string band between the first and second floors and only one window wide. The ground floor window is segmental with large voussoirs. The service wing has a low-pitched hipped roof with deep eaves and lead roll ridges, culminating in a simple arcaded bellcote with bell and lead pyramid roof.

Proceeding around the main block to the left reveals another symmetrical three-window front with canted bays to the ground floor, almost certainly original. These bays contain two sashes of six panes each in front and two sashes of four panes in the flanks. The first floor windows match those of the entrance front. The main front has three widely spaced windows, all with six-pane sashes and much original glass, though the left-hand ground storey sashes are late 19th-century replacements. The main front is raised by a flight of three steps flanked by block pedestals, with two wrought iron boot scrapers with ornamentally topped standards positioned outside these in return. An inner timber porch with a pair of three-panel doors is probably early 20th-century.

The windows of the infill are all two sashes each with six panes. The service wing has sashes with horizontal panes: the bottom window has nine panes in the upper sash and six in the lower; the centre window has six and six, while the attic window has three and three. A small probably introduced six-pane fixed sash window, perhaps lighting a staircase, is located to the left.

The rear facade is four windows wide and largely unaltered, except for a large 20th-century projection at the left-hand side of the ground storey.

Although the interior was not fully inspected, the two rear ground floor rooms of the main block were visible through the windows. Both contain good chimney pieces, probably original to the house. That in the left-hand room is timber, with pilasters, frieze and cornice decorated with festoons and pendants, the frieze featuring a central plaque carrying a harp and horns. The chimney piece to the right is of grey marble with attached columns.

In the grounds, a contemporary bridge and the lodge gates are separately listed.