Sedgwick House School

Sedgwick House School is a house, later adapted for use as a school, dating from 1868 and designed by Paley and Austin for William Henry Wakefield. The building is constructed of coursed, tooled sandstone, with ashlar and granite dressings, and has a graduated greenslate roof with chimneys featuring conjoined octagonal corniced shafts. It is two storeys high with attics. The main front has five bays, and the garden front, set at a right angle, also has five bays. A projecting, four-storey battlemented tower sits centrally on the entrance front, flanked by dormers with a stone turret. A porte-cochere is located in front of the entrance, with a "W" for Wakefield on the parapet. A single-storey extension with a raised, glazed attic is situated to the left, and a clock tower is on the rear service wing. On the garden front, outer projecting gabled bays incorporate two-storey canted bay windows. Ground floor windows feature traceried heads and hood moulds with patterned stops, some with polished granite baluster mullions. Upper floor windows are two- or five-light sashes with stone mullions and two-centred heads to the lights. A Wakefield Coat of Arms is positioned above the transom of the first-floor window on the tower, while second-floor windows have Decorated style tracery. The interior includes a full-height Hall with hammer beam roofs, and a staircase with an opening string, decorative balusters, and a moulded handrail. Further features include elaborate plaster ceilings, fireplaces, panelled doors, moulded skirtings, architraves, and dado panelling throughout the ground floor.