Ashwell Hall (East Wing And West Leigh)

Ashwell Hall, built in 1879, is a large country house now divided into two sections, the East Wing and West Leigh. It was constructed for the gunmaker Westley Richards and features coursed squared ironstone with limestone quoins and dressings. The stone-coped gables have kneelers, and the slate roof is adorned with four ridge stacks and two end stacks, each with two to six grouped flues. The flues are mostly octagonal and made of ashlar, with some sections of coursed rubble stone for contrast, topped with linked battlemented features.

The house is designed in a Gothic/Elizabethan style and has two and a half storeys. It showcases two bands, finials on the gables, and stone mullion windows, primarily 1/1 sashes, with some featuring Tudor arches on wooden frames. The entrance front has an irregular composition with four gables grouped in the center, flanked by side stacks and an additional gable at the back left. The windows are mostly two and three-light, with large nine-light mullion and transom windows in the two center gables.

The entrance to West Leigh is located in the right return of this section, featuring a two-leaved door under a Tudor arch, accessed by a stone staircase of ten steps with quatrefoils in the stone balustrade. Some windows contain stained glass. To the left of the four gables, there is a small hipped roof section, and the entrance to the East Wing is in a one and a half storey section at the left end, which has an arcade of three arches at the front and one to the left on the corner, leading to stone steps and a door. The roof has two and a half dormers above, along with two additional half-hipped dormers on the main roof. The right end features a door and further two-light windows, with a notable end stack of G flues.

At the rear, the garden front displays seven gables, two of which project and rise to two and a half storeys, while five have quarter-dormer windows. Most gables have stone panels with quatrefoils and stone shields, along with two and three-light windows. A large curved stone mullion bay window is located on the ground floor to the left. The main roof includes three and a half hipped dormers with two lights and top lights, and the guttering is battlemented. Inside, there is an oak staircase featuring ogee-topped battlemented finials on the angle posts and round balusters with spiral banding.