Knowle Riding Centre

Knowle Riding Centre is a country house that has been converted into a residential centre. It was built around 1878 on an earlier site by architect J D Sedding for Mr. Hole. The building is constructed of squared red sandstone with Ham stone dressings and features a steeply pitched slate roof adorned with decorative ridge tiles and obelisk finials on the gabled end bays and central porch. The design follows a shallow E-plan and is styled in an Elizabethan manner.

The structure has two storeys with an attic and is arranged in a 1:3:1:3:1 bay configuration. The central porch rises three storeys and is topped with a gable that sweeps up to a segmental pediment, flanked by obelisks. The upper storey has patterned slate-hung returns and a three-light window, with a pedimented top above a three-light mullioned and transomed window, also flanked by engaged obelisks. The entrance features a segmental pediment supported by fluted Ionic columns, a leaded fanlight, and a 20th-century door with many panes, flanked by three three-light mullioned and transomed windows. There is a single light in the central bay to the left, and a moulded string course on brackets runs along the ground floor, which has empty semi-circular headed niches in the central bays.

The gabled end bays are accentuated with two-storey canted bays that contain four-light mullioned and transomed windows topped with pediments similar to that of the porch. Many of the first-floor windows retain their original circular leading. Panels carved with heraldic achievements are located below the segmental pediments on the gable ends, which are inscribed with "Anno D." and the year 18--, although the year is eroded. A 20th-century single-storey addition to the right is not included in the listing, as it occupies the site of the original conservatory. J D Sedding was the architect for the Diocese of Bath and Wells, and the building is illustrated in The Builder.