Toft Hall

Toft Hall is a country house largely dating to the late 17th century, with significant additions and alterations made in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Constructed primarily of rendered brick with stone dressings and a slate roof, the house features two storeys with attics and four-storey towers.

The original eastern front was shallow in shape, with a projecting two-storey porch and lateral wings. A central four-storey tower is characterised by projecting quoins, a modillion cornice, and Tudor hood moulds over the windows. The central doorway has a moulded stone surround with five stone panels displaying coats of arms above. One bay projects to either side of the tower, with the ground-floor bays extending further than the original design. The first floor has three four-pane sash windows. Late 18th century wings with semi-octagonal ends were later added to the re-entrant angles of the original wings, each featuring three French windows on the ground floor and three first-floor windows with a three-by-three pane configuration and Tudor hood moulds, surmounted by hipped roofs with ball finials. A continuous 20th-century wooden canopy now extends over the central three bays, where horizontally sliding glazed doors have been installed. An ogee-shaped lead roof tops the structure. Original gabled wings, two bays wide on the ground and first floors, with single bays to the gables, are situated to the right and left, all having Tudor hood moulds. Stone copings and ball finials are present at the summits. A further addition, dating to circa 1870, is visible on the right side, distinguished by projecting quoins.

The rear, which now serves as the main entrance front, mirrors the original design with a central four-storey tower featuring a similar doorway and coats of arms above. Sash windows, with a three-by-four pane configuration, appear on the first and second floors. A band separates the ground and first floors, while string courses delineate the spaces between the first and second floors and the second and third floors. Four bays extend on either side, all with Tudor hood moulds. Two 19th-century gabled attic dormers are situated on either side, and projecting wings mark the extreme left and right, with two bays on the ground and first floors and one to the gable. Stone copings and finials top the summits.

The interior includes a late 17th-century staircase with a barley-sugar balustrade and panelled newels, and a mid-18th-century open-well staircase with turned balusters and a ramped rail with dado panelling. An oval oculus is positioned above the staircase. Some early 18th-century framing remains visible on the upstairs walls. The “blue room” features 19th-century Neo-Classical decoration, including scagliola pilasters with Corinthian capitals and painted wall panels, alongside a panelled ceiling. During a resurvey in 1984, the house was undergoing extensive restoration, and many internal features had been removed for safekeeping. The removal of internal plasterwork revealed blocked windows in the study and library, confirming that these rooms were later additions within the re-entrant angles of an earlier, E-shaped house.