Boyles Court

Details

BRENTWOOD

TQ59SE DARK LANE, Great Warley 723-1/8/138 (West side) 21/10/58 Boyles Court

II

House, now school. 1776. Architect Thomas Leverton. Red brick. Plan of echelon form; central block with deeply recessed pavilions with linking wings, pavilions deep front to back. Roof of central block now flat with no stacks as a result of a C20 fire requiring the rebuilding of the upper structure, particularly towards the front. Pavilions have hipped slate roofs. EXTERIOR: front, N elevation, piano nobile continued across whole facade, stuccoed ground floor, brick above. Central block, 3 storeys and attic, parapet, 5 bays, central 3 bays breaking forward with pediment and parapet. Ground floor, central C20 door with decorative iron-work and C20 plain fixed windows each side, outer bays, sash windows with glazing bars, 3x2 panes, deep Tuscan portico to central 3 bays with 6 square columns and cornice with balustrade. First floor (piano nobile), central 3 windows with stuccoed architraves and cornices, outer windows have shallow semicircular headed recessed panels and balustraded aprons. All are sashes with glazing bars, 3x4 panes and are linked by 2 raised, stuccoed strings at their bases and heads. These strings continue on across the whole frontage defining the piano nobile. Second floor divided from first by a raised guilloche decorated stucco band which continues round the sides of the central block. Windows sashes with glazing bars, all 3x4 panes. Attic above has a mutule cornice, centre pediment, similar with recessed oval panel, outer bays with balustraded recessed panels. All the brickwork above the 2nd storey windows is renewed. Pavilions 2 storeyed, single bay with large Venetian window on first floor set within a semicircular arched recess with balustraded apron. Windows are sashes with glazing bars, 1x3, 3x3 plus arched head glazing, 1x3 panes. Ground floor sash window with glazing bars. E pavilion, 3x2 panes, W pavilion, 3x4 panes. Side link wings single bay, first floor sash window with glazing bars, 3x3 panes formed by paired pilasters each side and a balustraded parapet. Ground floor E wing sash window with glazing bars, 3x2 panes. W wing C20 door with upper glazing with glazing bars, 2x2 panes, lower panel. To E ground floor podium continued as a courtyard wall of 4 bays, stuccoed, each bay has a single casement window and remains of a wall head balustrade between bay piers. Rear, S elevation, now considerably closed in by C20 work. 3 storey and attic central block similar to front with some string courses and central 3 bays articulated. Ground floor stuccoed, 3 sash windows with glazing bars, 3x4 panes, two C20 doors with glazed fan-lights and upper glazing. First floor, central recessed blind Venetian window with balustraded apron, gauged brick voussoirs, outer 4 sash windows with glazing bars, 3x4 panes. 2nd floor, 3 central sash windows echo tripartite Venetian scheme below with centre one of 3x4 panes and 2 outer of 2x4 panes. Outer 4 bays have sashes with 3x4 panes. Attic storey has five C20 2-light casement windows, one central and one in outer 2 bays on each side. Link wings, 2 window range and hipped slate roofs. First floor defined by piano nobile stucco strings. All windows sashes, 3x4 panes, ground floor of W wing covered by C20 addition. Pavilions, 2 window range, 3 storeyed with central stack and hipped ridge, stuccoed ground floor. E pavilion ground floor obscured by C20 addition, first floor windows sashes, 3x4 panes, second floor sashes, 3x3 panes. W pavilion ground and first floor, sashes, 3x4 panes, second floor blind window recesses. W end elevation central block 3 window range continues front system, ground floor 2-light casement windows off centre to those above. S window of piano nobile blind. Attic (rebuilt to front) C20 2-light casement windows. Pavilion S end rebuilt and blank central stack, 2 window range, centre and to N piano nobile strings, ground floor sashes, 3x4 panes, first floor 3x3 panes. E end elevation as W end, central block, ground floor windows 4x4 panes, second floor 2 sash windows 3x4 panes. Rear S window with slatted louvres and 2 small C20 casements side by side. Pavilion as W elevation but 4 window range with external C20 stack, ground and first floor 3x4 panes, second floor 3x3 panes. First and second floor windows at S end now replaced by C20 doorways, C20 ground floor door below with 2 upper glazed panels and 2 lower panels. Courtyard continuing round from front elevation - 3 central openings between piers - stuccoed walling lined out as ashlar. Balustrade as front elevation removed. INTERIOR of court has three C20 blocks. Interior of house - little remains of original work except the well staircase set to the rear, behind blind Venetian window, originally of the early C18 with carved brackets at the tread ends and shaped handrail - balusters now covered in but with delicate balusters of thin alternating pattern and carved tread ends `reconstructed to a wrong design' - (Pevsner, Essex). The whole staircase has been reorganised in the late C19 with some carving of that time especially newel pendants. A whole early staircase quite possibly having been brought in from elsewhere. Some interior plaster work of late C18 style at the rear of the house is probably of late C19 date. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Essex: 1965-: 214).

Listing NGR: TQ5778891558

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

373429

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Essex, (1965), 214

End of official list entry

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