Charlton Park (St Edwards School Main Building)

Details

CHARLTON KINGS

SO92SE CIRENCESTER ROAD 630-1/2/46 (West side) 22/04/50 Charlton Park (St Edward's School, main building) (Formerly Listed as: CIRENCESTER ROAD Charlton Park (Main School Building))

GV II*

Country house, now school. C16, with C18, C19 and C20 alterations. Timber-framed courtyard house built c1562-8 for Giles Grevill the younger; remodelled for John Prinn who bought the property in 1701; east front remodelled 1701-9; north front c1720 and new western block added 1732 (date on stack, on beam in attic and a chimneypiece); west front remodelled (including attic storey and pediment) and drawing Room inserted into courtyard c1784 for Dodington Hunt and his wife Elizabeth Prinn; altered c1885 and especially after conversion into school in 1939. Brick, burnt red to south front and pinkish-buff to west front with hipped tile roof, also slates and lead. EXTERIOR: west front: 2 storeys with attic, 11 first-floor windows arranged 3:5:3 with central pedimented breakforward. First floor has 6/6 sashes; attic storey has 3/3 sashes, oculus to pediment; ground floor has 1/1 sashes; louvred shutters to ground and first floors. Central entrance a panelled door in tooled architrave with frieze and pediment on consoles. Dentil cornice, blocking course. This block is 2 windows deep. South front: 2 storeys with C20 attics, 7 first-floor windows. Mainly 2/2 sashes in tooled architraves, moulded sills and architraves; rectangular bay at right, ground floor has 1/1 sashes. Attic roof dormers with casements. East front: first floor, two 6/6 sashes of c1701 remain. Courtyard (now partly infilled by oval room): 2 mullion-and-transom windows remain to east range; to south range are 3 blocked elliptically-arched openings, 2 with stone dressings. To rear gable of south wing a plaque to stack inscribed 'MADE NEW 1732' (in lozenge). Some stacks have Doric frieze and ashlar cornices. INTERIOR: oak panelling (some probably C17). Chinese Chippendale-type open-well staircase to garden front, off-centre hall, with ramped handrail, newel posts decorated with fretwork; carved acanthus ornament to treads. To rear of

this staircase a service stair with stick balusters. To early C18 part a dogleg staircase has rod-on-vase balusters with square knops and ramped handrail. Oval drawing room (now chapel) has Neo-Classical decoration, frieze with urns, decorative cornice, oval roof light with frieze of swags and paterae, C19 stained glass; occupies original courtyard. 4-, 6- and 8-fielded-panel doors, some in tooled architraves. Shutters and pull-up shutters to some windows; fielded-panel reveals to garden front windows. Enriched cornices to Neo-Classical part. Good marble fireplace to left room, garden front has panel with Hebe feeding and eagle; some eared marble fireplaces. South wing, attic: wall plate and purlin exposed, purlin dated 1732; several principal rafters and collar beams exposed, one collar dated 1732. Cellar under old range has barrel-vaulted ceiling. HISTORICAL NOTE: originally known as The Forden, it was sold by Giles Greville to John Prinn of the Inner Temple for »725 in 1701. He enclosed the east front in brick, the west block was the final part of his extensions. It was inherited by William Prinn in 1742, and painted by Thomas Robins c1748 (picture in Cheltenham Art Gallery); this show a 2-storey house with attic dormers (but no pediment). Its name was changed to Charlton Park c1784 for Dodington Hunt. There is a similar Chinese Chippendale-style staircase to Nos 34 & 34A, Bafford Lane (qv). (The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 121; Paget M (ed), Charlton Kings Local History Society: A History of Charlton Kings: Gloucester: 1988-: 77-79; Charlton Kings Local History Society Bulletin: 1982-: 20-40).



Listing NGR: SO9593820805

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

473989

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Paget, M, A History of Charlton Kings, (1988), 77-79
Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire 2 The Vale and The Forest of Dean, (1970), 121
Charlton Kings Local History Society Bulletin in Charlton Kings Local History Society Bulletin, (1982), 20-40

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