New House Hall

NEW HOUSE HALL

A substantial stone-built house on Newhouse Road, Sheepridge, dating from circa 1550. It was built by Thomas Brook I, whose will of 1553 describes it as recently constructed. The hall range and solar wing were probably altered by Thomas Brooke IV (1581-1638), whose initials appear in the solar chimneypiece. The east wing was rebuilt in 1865 and refronted in 1903.

The house is constructed of hammer-dressed stone with a pitched stone slate roof. It comprises 2 storeys with attics.

The south front of the hall range features a continuous string course and a late 17th or early 18th-century moulded eaves cornice, topped by a very high parapet with 3 diagonally placed ball finials. The ground floor has stone mullioned and transomed casements with double chamfered reveals and 3 plus 3 lights, with one original iron-framed casement surviving. The 1st floor has a similar but smaller window. The planked double doors have a late 17th or early 18th-century moulded and shouldered surround with a monolithic lintel. Above this is a stone mullioned and transomed casement in a double chamfered surround.

The solar range displays 2 continuous stringcourses and a shallow gable with an ornamental finial. Both ground and 1st floors have a stone mullion and transom casement window each, in double chamfered reveals with 4 plus 4 lights. The attic storey has a 3-light stone mullioned window with double chamfered reveals and a dripmould.

The return side to the hall range has a range of stone mullioned and transomed casements in double chamfered reveals, with the lower window retaining an original iron-framed casement. The west front of the solar wing has an almost complete set of stone mullioned and transomed windows in double chamfered reveals. From south to north, the windows have the following numbers of lights: 4 (with one original iron-framed casement on the ground floor), 4 (same on both floors), 2, 3 on the 1st floor (one light fitted with an 18th-century sash with glazing bars) and 4 on the ground floor (with 2 mullions removed), 3 (ground floor obscured by a 19th-century extension), and 3 (ground floor similarly obscured). The stringcourses continue round the back of the solar range. The ground floor has 2-storey mullioned casements in chamfered surrounds, both originally 4-light but both now with one mullion removed. The 1st floor has a 4-light stone mullioned and transomed casement in double chamfered reveals. The attic storey has a 2-light stone mullioned casement in table chamfered reveals.

The return side to the hall range matches the south elevation, except for one half-blocked 2-light stone mullioned window in double chamfered reveals to the basement.

The rear of the hall range has an interrupted string course and a high parapet. Three 3-light stone mullioned casements with double chamfered reveals (the ground floor one with an iron-framed casement and hoodmould, and the highest one with a piece of moulding over voussoirs) are present, together with a 2-light stone mullioned and transomed casement in double chamfered reveals. A door opposite the screens passage has a chamfered surround with a monolithic triangular-shaped lintel. Nearly all windows in the solar wing, and the hall window in the hall range, retain original diagonally placed iron bars inside the glazing. The 19th-century wing is unobtrusive.

Interior

The staircase in the hall range is probably of the late 17th century. It features a closed string, double twisted balusters, and a moulded handrail. The newels have double curved moulded tops, with the bottom one displaying acanthus ornament. Partitions and the door below the staircase have bolection moulded panelling. A bolection panelled partition and door to a small room at half-landing level lead to a ceiling apparently of the same date: a basic plaster oval ornamented with laurel, 4 grotesque masks, 4 bunches of foliage and grapes, and festoons of leaves and flowers.

The hall ceiling is also of the late 17th century. It features a simple plaster oval wreath that is gadrooned and ornamented with festoons of leaves, pomegranates and flowers. The centre contains 2 putti heads and additional foliage. An ashlar fireplace with a 2-centred arch and moulded surround is present, with a re-set dolerail on the west side, repositioned in 1865, featuring turned balusters. A cupboard on the landing has 7 simply ornamented panels. The door to the room above the hall has a bolection moulded surround and 2 similar panels.

The kitchen to the rear contains cupboards with air holes in ornamental patterns and ornamental iron hinges.

In the solar range, a chimneypiece is initialled "TMB" for Thomas and Margaret Brooke—that is, Thomas Brooke IV and his wife Margaret Hanson, who died in 1615. The stone fireplace has an ovolo-moulded surround with fancy stops and a 4-centred arch with ornamental spandrels. The wooden overmantel features a gadrooned and dentilled mantelshelf with semi-balusters below and 4 ornately decorated columns above, separating a simply ornamented round-arched porch.

The room above the solar has the initials "TDB", referring to Thomas Brooke IV and his second wife Dorothie Crosland, whom he married in 1624 and who died in 1634.

Building History

The evidence suggests that the house was built by Thomas Brooke I shortly before 1553. The solar wing was rebuilt by Thomas Brooke IV by 1615, with its decoration completed between 1624 and 1634. The hall range was subsequently rebuilt in the later 17th century, possibly by Joshua Brooke or his widow Sara Brooke (who died in 1683), or even by their daughter Hellen Townley (died 1719), who made various minor adjustments, including to the front door, circa 1700. The right-hand wing was rebuilt in 1865.