Ramsdell Hall Including Former Stable Block

Ramsdell Hall including former stable block

Country house of the early to mid-18th century, built in Flemish bond brick with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The building has an L-shaped plan comprising a three-storey central block with single-storey wings terminating in two-storey pavilions.

The garden front presents a symmetrical composition. The central block is of three bays. At ground and first-floor levels are Venetian windows with ashlar surrounds, while the second floor has a tripartite window with a steep pediment above the central light, resting on moulded brackets. Flanking these are canted bay windows with stone bands at the level of the first and second-floor window sills. The windows are of 3 by 4 panes to the ground and first floors and 3 by 3 panes to the second floor, all with flat arched heads and projecting keystones. An ashlar cornice runs across the top of the wall, above which sits a panelled brick parapet with ashlar coping, ball finials at the corners and centre.

To either side and slightly recessed are single-storey wings of three bays each, featuring round-arched windows with projecting springers and keystones. A doorway is set to the right of the left-hand wing. At the centre of each wing is a slightly projecting bay with pilaster strips supporting an open pediment. The pavilions project slightly and contain Venetian windows to the ground floor with lunettes above that cut into pedimental gables having ashlar surrounds. Circular lanterns surmount the pavilion roofs, each with an ogee-domed lead roof and wrought iron weathercock. Two brick chimney stacks with ashlar capping are symmetrically disposed to either side of the central block.

The rear elevation features a projecting gabled wing at the right with a twentieth-century lean-to at ground floor level and two blocked windows with flat arched heads and projecting keystones. A single pilaster buttress stands at the left of this wing. To the left of this is the recessed portion of the L-shaped plan. Cutting across the re-entrant angle at 45 degrees is a portion of walling containing at ground-floor level a doorway with ashlar surround and open pediment supported by brackets resting on clusters of shafts. The door comprises six raised and fielded panels with lateral lights having intersecting glazing bars to the upper panes. To either side are further clustered shafts, and above the windows are extended volutes with rinceau ornament. At first-floor level is a window of 3 by 4 panes with ashlar surround, above which is a further similar window of 3 by 3 panes. A segmental pediment supported on brackets projects above this into the parapet. To either side at ground floor are two bays with windows of 4 by 4 panes with flat-arched heads and central keystones; similar windows appear at the first and second floors, the latter being of 3 by 4 panes.