West Wing, Potterton Hall

This is a house, built around 1740, possibly designed by Robert Carr of Horbury. It is a building of group value. The facade is constructed of ashlar stone, with hammer-dressed stone on the sides and rear, and has a stone slate roof. The house is three stories high and has a symmetrical five-bay facade. A plinth is present, along with ground-floor and first-floor sill bands, and a broad first-floor band. The doorway features Doric pilasters and an inner architrave surround decorated with triglyphs and guttae, a casement-moulded cornice, and an apron above the first-floor window containing an inner architrave, a swept-shouldered outer architrave, consoles, a pulvinated frieze, and a triangular pediment. Other bays contain sash windows with unusual rusticated jambs and thick glazing bars. The windows on the second floor are smaller and have six panes. A bold, bracketed, casement-moulded cornice returns slightly to the left gable. The gables are coped with kneelers and tall ashlar stacks. The South Wing is attached to the right at a right angle. The rear of the building shows two visible bays. The doorway leads to a stair window above. The second bay has 12-pane windows from the 18th century with thick glazing bars, and the second-floor windows have six panes.

Inside, the front door opens into a sitting room with a fine modillioned ceiling cornice. A doorway with an eared architrave containing a pulvinated frieze and a dentil casement-moulded cornice leads, on the right of the main door, into a square room with a carved panelled dado and three doorways with finely carved architraves, six-panelled doors, and friezes with dentil cornices. The window shutters are carved, and there is a richly-moulded ceiling cornice with dentils and modillions. The stair-hall, at the rear, contains a dog-leg cantilevered open-string staircase with a ramped handrail and decorative cast-iron balusters. A panelled dado is present, and the space is top-lit with a circular window containing bullseye glazing. A modillioned ceiling cornice is also present. Below is an extensive vaulted cellar with recesses for wine bins. At the half-landing, an arched panelled doorway (blocked) leads to the South Wing. A servants’ back-staircase, also dog-leg with finely-turned wooden balusters, provides access to the attic and second-floor rooms, which have contemporary fireplaces with decorative cast-iron grates. The square sitting room chamber features a panelled dado and a fireplace with an eared architrave and a richly-decorated ceiling cornice.

The building is a fine example of its type, notable for its good interior.