Sunfield School, Upper School, Clent Level 3 Historic Building Recording

The Ruskin Mill Trust (RMT) commissioned AB Heritage Limited to produce a Level 3 Historic Building Recording report for the Upper School site at the Sunfield School off Woodman Lane, Clent, Stourbridge DY9 9PB. The work was required to meet a pre-commencement condition to a planning permission for Sunfield School by Bromsgrove District Council (ref: 22/01302/FUL - Planning Condition 3). AB Heritage conducted the on-site recording on the 29th of May 2025. The recorded buildings comprise 1) a range of small workshops and other ancillary spaces (Buildings A to C in this report) and 2) a former Coach House and Stables building (Building D in this report). Based on cartographic evidence (Section 4.1 of AB Heritage, 2022; Worcestershire HER reference: WSM78098) and observations during the HBR works - the stable and the further ancillary structures are assessed as forming the surviving part of a services yard that was associated with the Clent Grove villa during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The flexible, uncomplicated layout of rooms and spaces provided within Buildings A to D, have, in more recent times, been readily adapted to a range of uses for Sunfield School, including teaching spaces, maintenance workshops and storage facilities. The retained historic fabric of Buildings A to D is found to contain limited evidence of the buildings' use before the Sunfield site became a school in the 1930s. This Report and the Digital Archive project are to be deposited with ADS within six months of the final approval from the Local Planning Authority. The Sunfield School has been using the former Clent Grove site for nearly a hundred years. While the historic brick-built buildings of the Upper School Development Site (Area 4) retain a level of vernacular appearance due to their scale and materiality, the buildings are essentially a therapeutic learning and working environment for the School's pupils and staff, rather than a place of work for the staff of a wealthy, Victorian middle-class household as originally conceived. It is assessed that the original function of Building D as the former Coach House and Stables (with hayloft) to the Clent Grove villa, remains reasonably well eligible to the present day. In contrast, the original functions of Buildings A, B and C are less readily discernible. Their siting alongside the former walled garden would indicate that Buildings B and C, at least, were likely conceived initially as garden and tool stores and/or perhaps, e.g. potting sheds or similar. The two-storey height and the large windows to Building A would seem to indicate some more specific function to this building, perhaps as a workshop of some kind. It is known from historical written sources that Clent Grove was leased out by the Chance family in the early 20th century (Chance, C., 2025), so it is not entirely clear who was responsible for the construction works at Clent Grove during this period. The carpentry workshop fit out to the ground floor of Building A certainly has some age to it and could be original to the building's early 20th century construction. The subsequent changes to the built fabric of the buildings reflect the transition from support facilities to a traditional upper-middle-class residence in the 19th century to a learning setting in the 20th and 21st centuries. The most notable changes to the historic building fabric relate to the rebuilding of the SE garage end of Building D and the introduction of the modern entrance porch to the SW return corner. Building D has also been re-roofed. Across Buildings A to D, a number of later window openings have been created, and in Building A, there is clear evidence of modern replacement windows to the GF. Internally, the functional nature of Buildings A to D means that there are limited decorative interiors to speak of.