Ashburner House At Dowdales School

SD2274 708-1/10/203

Dalton In Furness BARROW IN FURNESS NELSON STREET (North side (off)) Ashburner House at Dowdales School

II Large house, now part of school. c1895. For GB Ashburner (Walton). Coursed sandstone, with ashlar dressings, slate roof. 2 storeys and attic with 3-storey tower to front-centre and1-storey wing to rear; 3-bay front. Chamfered plinth; roll-moulded, quoined window surounds; oversailing, embattled parapets with gadrooned ball finials; ashlar gable copings with finials. Doorway set back on right has panelled double door with fanlight in ashlar doorcase having pilasters, basket arch, acanthus-carved keystone, paterae and dentilled cornice; small single-light window over has fleurons in its surround. Above the door, in angle with tower on left, is a corbelled vice which rises as a square turret; adjoining it a corbelled lateral stack with crenellated ashlar flues. Tower is set forward and has rounded corners: transomed 3-light window under relieving arch to ground floor; 2 plain sashes to 1st floor; 3-light mullioned window to 2nd floor; carved shield of arms in squared parapet. Bay 1 has a canted, 2-storey bay window of 1:3:1 lights the ground-floor lights transomed, embattled parapet with ball finials. Gabled roof dormer above has 3-light casement with glazing bars. Corbelled and corniced end stack on left. Rear: stair window with 2 transoms and king mullion. Contemporary 1-storey wing links to school buildings of 1928. Left return: 2 gables, that on left with 2-storey bay window. Right return: single gable with canted, 1-storey bay window.

INTERIOR (not fully inspected): lobby doors with stained-glass panels depicting 2 flower bearers; pot plant etched on overlight. Stair-hall: patterned-tile floor; embossed dado; frieze with strapwork, masks and drapes; patterned ceiling panels. Staircase: turned balusters, octagonal newel with vase finial. Stair window with stained-glass panels depicting The Arts; multiple insets below show flora and fauna. Inherited financial burdens caused GB Ashburner to commit suicide before he could occupy the house. In 1897 it became the home of Mr Kellett, then manager of the Barrow Haematite Steel Co; became a school in 1928. (Walton J E: Dalton in Furness in Old Picture Postcards: Netherlands: 1983-: PL 50). Listing NGR: SD2274374426