Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL86SE MOUNT ROAD
639-1/13/477 Moreton Hall School
12/07/72

GV II*

House, now school. 1773. By Robert Adam for Professor John
Symonds, a Cambridge don. White brick and slate roof.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellars. According to Symonds' diary,
the foundation stone was laid on April 12 1773 (a year earlier
than Adam's work on the Playhouse in Cornhill). A mid C19 wing
extends on the east side. The house was first called St.
Edmund's Hill, later The Mount, and now Moreton Hall School.
There are 2 chimney piece designs for St. Edmund's Hill
entitled "for John Symonds 1776" in the Adam collection at the
Soane Museum. (Vol. XXIII Nos. 73-75). The Adam block is built
as a cube, with a parapet and a wood cornice. Each of the 4
fronts has a wood dentilled pediment. 3 window range on each
of the exposed fronts, double-hung sashes with glazing bars on
the 1st and 2nd storeys and casements on the ground storey
(except on the north front which has double-hung sashes with
glazing bars).
The pediment on the north front is supported by wood pilasters
extending through the 1st and 2nd storeys with ornamented
capitals and frieze. An ornamented wood band runs between the
storeys. The central window on the 1st storey has a wood
architrave and a cornice on console brackets. The ground
storey has a large projecting central porch with stone Ionic
corner columns, frieze and cornice, surmounted by a wood
balustrade. A 6-panel door with side lights is framed by
pilasters and a frieze and has a large segmental fanlight with
ornamental fan glazing.
The porch is flanked by 3-light windows with stone pilasters,
frieze and cornice and a pediment over the central light. The
west front has a large segmental brick bay with 3 window range
running through 2 storeys and surmounted by a wood balustrade
with a frieze and pediment above. The south front has an
ornamented wood frieze below the pediment and a wood band
between the 1st and 2nd storeys. A stone band runs at 1st
storey sill level.
The 1st storey windows have blind boxes and the central window
has a wood architrave and cornice on enriched console
brackets. The ground storey has a central doorway with moulded
wood architrave and a pediment on enriched console brackets.
The door opens on to a raised terrace and is flanked by fine
Venetian windows with wood Ionic columns, pilasters and

cornice.
The mid C19 east wing is 2-storeys with a parapet and raised
brick bands between the storeys. 5 window range, double-hung
sashes with glazing bars (except ground storey on the south
front which has 4 casements). The north front has a stone
Venetian window at the west end. The roof to the Adam block is
tiled with a central chimney-stack and stacks above the apex
of each pediment.
INTERIOR: has 2 Adam rooms on the ground storey with Adam
ceilings, doors, ornamental pelmets and furnishings. 1 of the
rooms has a double columned ante room at each end with a
central bay. Other rooms have good Adam features. A C19
extension to the house contains a stair and rooms with heavy
woodwork in Jacobean style.
(BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 153).

Listing NGR: TL8693564497

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Moreton Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q15256210

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)