The Convent (Franciscan Convent Mount View RC) (EHER 38488)

A house, now a Franciscan convent, built in 1880 from yellow Gault stock brick with dressings in red brick terracotta and stone. The roof is covered in slate. The building appears as a large cubic block of two-storeys and semi-basement, but with an attic storey over part and a rooftop belvedere. The belvedere is an unequal octagon with a lead roof and horizontal-sliding windows on all faces.

October 1996. Grade II listed. A house, now a Franciscan convent, built in 1880 from yellow Gault stock brick with dressings in red brick terracotta and stone. The roof is covered in slate. The building appears as a large cubic block of two-storeys and semi-basement, but with an attic storey over part and a rooftop belvedere. The belvedere is an unequal octagon with a lead roof and horizontal-sliding windows on all faces. The south-west (entrance) front has a projecting centre with full-height pilasters, culminating in a low gable with paired sashes to the window, breaking through the base. Either side of the window, the gable spandrels are of terracotta blocks, a chequer of plain squares and squares with sunflower motif. On the first floor is a large canted oriel window with a moulded cornice and wine-glass base. The recessed part of front to the south-east has a terracotta plaque in a moulded brick frame with a pediment above, inscribed: 'JGS 1880'; the initials are repeated on the glass of an adjoining door and windows, and refer to John Sadd, the local timber importer. The north-east elevation, sited above the scarp slope and enjoying wide views over the river plain, has the same tripartite division as the entrance front. The projecting centre has a similar low-pitched gable, surmounted here by a pediment. On the south-west corner of the main block is a single-storey brick service building with a hipped slate roof and sash window. Internally, the entrance hall has an encaustic-tiled floor and a grand open-well staircase with foiled piercings to the balustrade, Vitruvian scroll on the strings and all in stained timber. The main rooms all have plaster cornices of varying patterns. <1> See photo <2>.