Fenay Hall

Fenay Hall

A multi-phase mansion built between 1605 and the mid to late 19th century, with the principal entrance in its early to mid-19th-century section. The building is constructed of hammer-dressed stone with a hipped stone slate roof, two storeys, moulded eaves cornice, and continuous sill bands.

The main front facing Fenay Lane comprises five ranges of sash windows, with the central three set in a wide canted bay. The entrance door has moulded panels and a fanlight, set in a moulded frame with a fluted frieze and pediment, accessed by a flight of steps with mid-19th-century cast iron railings.

To the west is the 1660 range, refronted with stucco in 1792 (parapet inscribed "B N 1792"). This section is gabled with two storeys at the west end. It features a tripartite stone mullioned sash on the first floor and French casements with marginal glazing bars on the ground floor, together with side lights and fanlight. A verandah on elaborate mid-19th-century cast iron piers extends along this section. The mid to late 19th-century extension to the east and north-east is of no special architectural interest.

A courtyard at the rear is accessed through a gateway, probably of the late 17th century, with rusticated ashlar jambs and a crude semi-circular trophy above inscribed "W F INTRET FIDES".

Excluding the mid to late 19th-century wing, the courtyard is enclosed by four gables. The two eastern gables are timber-framed and probably date from 1605 or earlier. Their ground floor is masked by a stone lean-to extension of the 17th or early 18th century, containing two 18th-century tripartite sashes with glazing bars set in partly chamfered reveals and a door with depressed arched head and chamfered reveals. This leads to a porch in antis with flanking benches and a studded planked door. Both gables feature bressummers with foliage moulding on the east gable and vine moulding on the west gable, elaborate cut bargeboards, and moulded finials. Oblong bay windows with casements and leaded quarries are set below the bressummers. The east gable has console-shaped brackets to the bressummer and short studs connecting it to a subsidiary tie-beam, with the spaces between filled with black and white abstract patterns. Above the tie-beam and bressummer, the studs run parallel to the rafters. On the west gable, the studs run perpendicular to the rafters below the bressummer, which is inscribed "N F".

The two gables further west date from 1660, project forward, and are built of hammer-dressed stone. The eastern gable is masked by a parapet, has one range of sashes with glazing bars and an 18th-century lead downpipe with gadrooned rainwaterhead. The western gable has one bipartite window with glazing bars on the first floor, one six-light stone mullioned window with hollow chamfered surround on the ground floor, and one late 19th-century window. Both gables are crowned with stone finials.

Interior

The drawing room of 1660 appears to be cruck-framed, with a modillion cornice running all the way round the skirting cruck blades. The room retains a fine contemporary plaster ceiling with large star-shaped moulding. Above the fireplace is an achievement of arms dated 1660. Later 20th-century panelling has been added. The butler's room has early 18th-century panelling, and the timber-framed wall above is supported on monolithic Tuscan columns.