Willaston Hall

Willaston Hall

Small country house built in 1737 for John Bailey, with substantial early 19th-century additions and alterations. Constructed of red Flemish bond brick with painted ashlar dressings and a tile roof. The building is two storeys with an attic to the central portion.

The entrance front was heavily remodelled in the early 19th century. At this time, slightly recessed lateral wings were added, as was walling to the attic storey, although the original roof appears to have been retained with the dormer window construction masked by a curtain wall. The number of bays in the central block was reduced from five to three, with the central first-floor window retained and its form imitated on either side. A slightly projecting plinth runs across the whole facade, with a moulded top to the central three bays. Chamfered quoins articulate the corners of the central portion and lateral wings.

The central doorway sits above a flight of four 20th-century steps and comprises a 6-panel 20th-century door with a panelled stone surround featuring a pediment supported by consoles and a projecting keystone. To either side are early 19th-century tripartite windows with central lights of 3 by 4 panes and lateral lights of 1 by 4 panes, fitted with panelled wooden surrounds. A band runs between ground and first floor. The first floor has three windows of 3 by 4 sash panes with moulded stone sills and flat-arched heads with central keystones, beneath a moulded cornice that originally terminated the wall. The attic storey contains three windows of 3 by 3 panes with similar flat-arched heads. Moulded stone coping tops the brick parapet, which features a central gadrooned and spiral-fluted urn with a gadrooned lip and simpler gadrooned and fluted urns at the corners. The hipped roof carries two lateral chimney stacks of square section dating to approximately 1737, each with a recessed arched panel to the centre of each side, flanked by stone springers and keystones.

The lateral wings, added in the early 19th century, have windows similar to those at the centre but with pedimented heads. First-floor sash windows are of 3 by 4 panes. A band beneath the brick parapet mirrors the coping and corner urns of the central block. At the inner angles of these lateral wings are displaced rainwater heads bearing "JOB/1737" in relief, presumably originally attached to the sides of the house. The left-hand side features a later 19th-century canted bay window to the ground floor. The right-hand side has three ground-floor windows each of 3 by 5 panes with marble steps below and three first-floor windows of 3 by 4 panes.

The rear elevation has two joined gables with early 19th-century brickwork filling the lower part of the valley. At ground-floor level on either side are cambered bow windows with semi-conical roofs.

Internally, the ground floor has pine 6-panel doors. The library features raised and fielded panelling and a 20th-century fireplace flanked by female terms with a sunburst over. Two upstairs rooms retain bolection-moulded 18th-century panelling and painted stone fire-surrounds with projecting fluted keystones.