Upton Hall (Quinton House School)

Upton Hall

A country house now used as a school, with complex origins spanning from the late 15th century to the early 19th century. The building retains a late 15th or early 16th-century hall roof structure from its origins as a house for the Knightley family (owners from 1419). A south-west wing was added in the early 17th century when the Samwell family became owners (from 1600). The main block was substantially remodelled in the mid-18th century, with further alterations around 1809 and other late 19th-century changes. The building was restored in 1985.

The principal east-facing elevation presents a three-storey front of red brick with flared headers and ironstone dressings. The façade is 11 windows wide on a complex plan. A central door of 8 panels has a painted stone surround with pilasters and pediment. The ground and first floor windows are 12-pane sashes with stone sills and keyblocked stone lintels, while the attic floor has 6-pane sashes with similar stone details. The central bay breaks forward slightly. On the ground and first floors, round-arched niches flank the central windows, each containing statues of the Seasons in artificial stone, probably dating to the 19th century. A 2-window bay projects at the left end, while the right end bay extends forward by 3 bays (added 1809). A stone plinth, first floor storey band, moulded stone cornice, moulded stone-coped parapet, and raised stone quoins define the composition. The projecting wing to the right bears rainwater heads inscribed with the initials TS WS and dated 1809 on the north side, with swept-up parapet ends on this elevation.

The right-side elevation is recessed and displays three bays over two storeys with an attic. It features a back door with flanking porch, 12-pane sash windows to either side, and a 24-pane sash on the first floor, all with stone lintels and keyblocks. Hipped roof dormers have 2-light leaded windows. The left elevation contains 19th-century French windows and sash windows with cemented wood lintels. The rear elevation of the main range includes a canted single-storey bay window with Gothick sashes, and similar Gothick sashes to ground and first floors in bricked-up openings of former stone mullion windows. Attic gables punctuate the rear, the left containing a quatrefoil window and the right flanked by leaded 1-light windows with moulded stone surrounds beside a stone end stack.

The roofing comprises slate and plain tiles with brick internal stacks. An irregular kitchen wing projects to the rear right.

The interior preserves exceptional features. The original late 15th or early 16th-century four-bay hall roof survives above the present hall ceiling, featuring moulded arch-braced collar trusses with 5-light ogee-arched divisions and intermediate chamfered arch-braced collar trusses with side struts. Four tiers of moulded wind-braced purlins support the structure, with quatrefoil wind-bracing to the top tier. A two-bay service addition features chamfered arch-braced collar trusses with side struts and 3 tiers of wind-braced purlins. At the opposite end, a 4-light gable window survives internally with hollow-chamfered stone mullions (partly broken), arched heads with cut spandrels, and hood mould. The cross-wing roof beyond contains collar trusses, 2 tiers of wind-braced purlins, and an attic room with a Tudor-arched stone fireplace featuring cut spandrels.

A plaster-vaulted cross passage occupies the position of the original screens passage. The sitting room to the right of this passage displays fine plasterwork by Giuseppe Artari. Its ceiling is divided into two compartments, with blank plaster frames to the walls featuring shell apron swags and ornamental plasterwork drops flanking the fireplace and window opposite.

The two-storey hall contains the most elaborate interior decoration. A painted stone chimneypiece dominates the centre of the back wall, featuring half pilasters, a pulvinated frieze with blank central tablet, and a broken segmental pediment framing a plaster bust of Flora. Plaster putti recline on either side of the pediment, holding a sheaf of corn (left) and a bunch of grapes (right). Six-panel doors flanking the fireplace have eared surrounds with pulvinated friezes and pediments. The end walls display three-bay blank round-arched arcades with the centre bays framing 6-panel double-leaf doors topped by cartouches. On either side are plaster medallions in low relief: busts of Mercury and Diana to the right and Mars and Minerva to the left. Opposite the fireplace stands a niche containing a life-size plaster statue of Apollo with lyre, signed on the left side of the plinth "JOSEPH ATARI" and inscribed on the right "FE.AN. 1737". Six-panel double-leaf doors above the right end door feature eared surrounds and a wrought-iron balcony. Portraits of the Samwell family (oil on canvas in architectural frames) adorn the walls, including a large conversation piece above the Apollo statue depicting Sir Thomas Samwell, his son Thomas, and three daughters. The ceiling is compartmented in the style of Inigo Jones, with a central octagonal compartment and guilloche to the divisions.

Behind the hall, the 'Monks' room contains Gothick doors with triple-shafted surrounds and a matching triple-shafted veined marble chimneypiece. The upper lights of Gothick sashes are fitted with coloured glass and painted glass shields. An adjacent room has a veined marble bolection-moulded fireplace surround with a late 18th-century painted wood surround. An open well staircase extends from ground floor to attic with barley-sugar balusters. Staff rooms feature fielded panelling, while the kitchen retains a high beamed ceiling.