Cloverley Hall and Stable Yards

Details

SJ 63 NW; 6/7

IGHTFIELD C.P.,
CALVERHALL,
Cloverley Hall and stable yards

20.8.71

GV

II*

Country house, now conference centre. 1864-70, by William Eden Nesfield
for John Pemberton Heywood. Partly demolished and rebuilt in 1926-7.
Red brick (English bond) with some blue-brick diapering and yellow/grey
sandstone ashlar dressings. Some slate hanging and decorative plasterwork.
Graded slate roofs. L-plan. Service range of now demolished house and
L-plan stable block attached to south-west. In a neo-Gothic style.
2 storeys and one storey and attic over basement. Chamfered plinths,
moulded string courses, lead-lined gutters with ornamental disc motifs
or 'pies'. Parapets with chamfered copings, including gables with carved
gabled kneelers and globe finials. Numerous tall brick stacks with
projecting strips and oversailing tops, some consisting of grouped circular shafts.
Ovolo-moulded and chamfered mullioned and transomed stone windows with
leaded lights. Moulded lead downpipes with ornamental castellated rainwater
heads, dated "1867 J P H" (John Pemberton Heywood) and "1927 H L" (probably
Heywood Lonsdale). North-west (entrance) front: 3 bays; 3-and 4-light
moulded mullioned and transomed windows with dripstones. Inserted central
Tudor-arched doorway with pair of 3-panelled oak doors, moulded reveals
and tympanum inscribed "1868-1926". Flanking cross windows. Moulded
recessed panel above with carved coat of arms. Straight joint-to right
of door between former service range to left and rebuilt fragment of house
to right. Right-hand return (south-west) front: 1927. Two gables.
3 bays; mullioned and transomed stone windows. Central carved wooden
door with carved bird above and 2-part overlight. South-east (garden)
front: block forming 1927 house to left. Gabled wing off-centre to right.
2:1:1 mullioned and transomed stone windows; basement windows with decorative
wrought-iron grilles. Tudor-arched basement door to left with chamfered
reveals, carved spandrels and surround, and stone panel above with carved
cornucopia and the motto: "GATHER YE ROSEBUDS WHILE YE MAY". Former scullery
to centre with double-hipped roof, large ridge stack, large 3-light mullioned
and transomed stone window to right, trefoil-headed window to left and
3 basement windows consisting of paired Gothic lights. Left-hand return
with gabled semi dormer and first-floor squinch with triple-chamfered arch.
Low one-storey range to its right with chamfered-mullioned strip window
lighting corridor. Curious combined dovecote, game larder and gun room
to far right, with projecting apsidal end. 3-light mullioned and transomed
stone window to former ground-floor gun room and tall trefoil-headed windows
lighting former first-floor game larder, narrow vertical vents below eaves, and
tall gabled glover set at angle to left supported on stone brackets at
eaves level and with louvres, rose-motifs to lead-sheathed sides and bracketed
gable. Ridge crestings and finials. Parapeted gable end to rear and
external brick stack corbelled from attic with 2 circular shafts. Kitchen
Court: south-east range with pantry etc. has 3 louvred raking dormers
and louvred hipped dormer to right. 2 gabled ranges to south-west, former
kitchen to left with pair of tall 2-light mullioned and transomed windows
and former servants' hall set back to right with ground-floor 5-light window.
North-west range consisting of 2-storey former wash house to right with
pair of half-hipped gables and 3-and 4-light mullioned and transomed wooden
windows. Lean-to roof over covered way to left and 2 hipped
dormers above with 4-light wooden casements. Rear of wash-house range
onto stable court to north-west; central coach house consisting of 5
pairs of boarded doors with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges and
divided by cast-iron posts. Hipped dormer to left and former horses washing
place to right with ground-floor boarded door and decoratively-inscribed
plaster coving to slate-hung gable above with 4-light casement. Stable
range: L-plan. South-west (entrance) front: central clock tower/
gatehouse. 4 stages. Double-chamfered plinth, string courses, moulded
stone eaves cornice and tall hipped roof with ridge cresting and finials.
Integral brick lateral stack to right with pitched-roof link to attic.
Central tall gabled wooden belfry with 4 copper bells divided by turned
balusters, cusped barge boards and finial with remains of glass globe.
Stair turret projecting at left with one-and 2-light windows and stone
frieze with carved discs at foot of gable with finial. Top stage of
tower with clock in square panel surrounded by small carved square panels
depicting the signs of the zodiac, returning to the side of the stair
tower, and with superscribed motto above and below: "LO THOUGH WE SLEEP
OR WAKE OR ROAM OR RIDE / AYE FLEETH THE TIME IT WILL NO MAN ABIDE".
Small trefoil-headed window to right and small boarded access hatch below
with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges, stone cross window to third
stage and 5-light mullioned stone window to second stage. Moulded carriage
archway with hoodmould. Interior of archway with beams resting on stone
corbels. Pair of roll-moulded arched doors inside to left, with continuous
hoodmould, central stop consisting of a carved horse's head within a
horseshoe, and boarded doors with strap hinges; double-chamfered
arched doorway to harness room to right with boarded door and carved
flower in stone panel above. Flanking ranges of one storey and attic.
That to right has large gabled semi dormer with pair of stone cross windows
and 2 ground-floor 3-light mullioned and transomed stone windows to former
harness room. Part of former service range in angle to right with gable
to front and gabled semi dormer to return. Part of stable range set
back to left of tower has central gabled semi dormer with pair of stone
cross windows and flanking loft vents beneath eaves with wooden louvres.
Stable Court: rear of clock tower with gabled louvred dormer, clock
with flanking chamfered lights, cross window to third stage with carved
panel to right, 5-light mullioned window to second stage and moulded
archway with impost band. North-west range: brick ridge stack off-
centre to right. Large loft dormer off-centre to left with external
steps up to half-glazed door, small casement to right, and timber framed
gable with 3-light wooden casement, ornamentally-incised plaster infill,
and finial. 3 ground-floor 2-light mullioned stone windows. Half-
glazed door to right with moulded reveals, and boarded door to left with
wrought-iron strap hinges, moulded reveals and 2-square stone panels above
with carved stylized foliage, and dripstone. Attached mounting block
off-centre to left. Rear with 3 gabled semi dormers alternating with
louvred wooden vents beneath eaves; right-hand gable with small stair
turret to left. Former brewhouse adjoining stable range to north-east.
Chamfered plinth, moulded cornice and ashlar parapet with chamfered coping,
and hipped roof with cresting and finials, and louvred raking dormer
to south-east. North-west and north-east fronts have pairs of deeply
recessed double-chamfered Gothic arches with moulded impost bands, openings
with chamfered cills and wooden louvres with shaped ends, and boarded-
up (October 1986) openings beneath. South-east front with pair of tall
recessed rectangular panels, 4-light mullioned stone window high up to
left, blocked doorway to left and segmental-arched doorway with pair
of boarded doors low down to right. Interior: the present house interiors
date from 1926-7 but possibly contain reused work from the demolished
part. Panelled draught lobby with half-glazed doors. 3-flight oak
staircase with landings, closed string, pierced splat balusters, square
newels with pierced finials and pendants, and dado rail. Fomer housekeeper's
room at rear with oak panelling and sandstone ashlar fireplace with
moulded Tudor arch. At least one Nesfield fitting survives, now in
the main part of the house; a curved gun cupboard, design to stand against
the curved wall of the former gun room. Interior of coach house with
cast-iron I-beams. John Pemberton Heywood, a Liverpool banker, bought
the estate from the Dod family c.1864. The house was commissioned in
1864 and building began in the following year. Nesfield's stone mason
at Cloverley was James Forsyth who was responsible for the carved ornament.
The main period of construction was 1865-68. Despite the demolition of
the house the surviving service ranges at Cloverly are still an important
and well detailed example of the early domestic work of William Eden
Nesfield. He was also responsible for the house's forecourt walls (q.v.),
two lodges (q.v.), Holy Trinity Church at Calverhall (q.v.) and other
nearby buildings. Cloverley Hall stands within landscaped parkland
with an ornamental lake to the south-east. B.o.E., p.107; Henry-Russell
Hitchcock in The Country Seat, ed. Colvin and Harris (London, 1970),
pp. 252-261; Jill Franklin, The Gentleman's Country House and its Plan.
1835-1914 (London, 1981), pp. 211-214; Mark Girouard, The Victorian Country
House(London, 1979), pp.72 and 402; Clive Aslet in Country Life, Vol.
CLXIII (1978), pp. 679 (ills.) and 681.


Listing NGR: SJ6152837081

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

260558

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Girouard, M, The Victorian Country House, (1971), 72 and 402
Hitchcock, H R, The Country Seat, (1970), 252-261
Franklin, J, The Gentlemans Country House and its Plan 1835-1914, (1981), 211-214
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 107
Country Life in Country Life, Vol. 163, (1978), 679 681

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.