Holy Rosary Convent, Mayfield Drive

The Holy Rosary Convent, located on Mayfield Drive in Bridgwater, is a house that was later used as a school, constructed circa 1850-1870. A later 20th-century wing extends to the rear. The building is constructed of red Wembdon rubble stone with stone dressings, a plain tile roof, and cream brick diagonal shafts, topped with moulded cornices. It has a complex L-shaped plan, executed in an eclectic High Victorian Gothic style.

The building is two storeys and has attics, with a three-window front. Stone dressings are plain, and pointed arches feature in each window light. Moulded kneelers rise to the copings of the Dutch gables. The range to the right is set forward, featuring a large Dutch gable with a single-light attic window. A three-light stone-mullioned window is above a single-storey rectangular bay with a modillion cornice and a hipped lead roof. A boarded-up mullioned and transomed window is nearby. To the left, a hipped roof, topped with a wrought-iron ornamental cage and with gablets on either side, rises particularly high. A Dutch gable on this side has a single-light window to the left and a two-light window to the right of the first floor, above a pointed-arched doorcase with engaged colonettes, scroll caps, and double three-panel doors. A boarded-up full-height window or door is located to the extreme left.

The return elevation facing the garden to the south showcases three Dutch gables with finials. The central bay is stepped forward, and the single-storey canted bay boasts a hipped tiled roof and two-light stone-mullioned windows. This bay is flanked by four-light stone-mullioned casement windows with moulded cornices. Another range has a hipped tiled roof to a rectangular single-storey bay. The left return steps forward in three stages; the entrance block to the right has a single-light window to the first floor and two-light windows to the ground and first floors. A 20th-century rear block is located to the right.

The interior features four-panel doors, high skirting boards, thick reeded cornices to ceilings, and polychromatic floor tiles in the entrance lobby, hall and service area, all of which are accessed via pointed arches opening onto the central hall. A stone screen composed of three pointed arches, with pierced foliate spandrels and capitals to marble columns, is located to the left; the side arches have a low wall with pierced quatrefoils, and the central arch leads to an Imperial staircase with open strings, turned balusters, fretted ends, swept and wreathed rails, and a curtail step. A large four-light stair window has ovolo moulded mullions and transom. Windows to the main rooms are similarly styled, with panelled soffits and splayed openings. A closed-string staircase with stick balusters and turned newel is found within the rear service area.