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
