Narborough Hall

Narborough Hall is a house with a front wing dating from the mid-to-late 17th century, possibly incorporating an earlier building, a central rear wing from an earlier date, a later wing to the rear of the left bay, and an extended staircase bay between the rear wings. The house was refurbished around 1900 and underwent repair work in 1985.

The building is constructed of granite rubble with limestone quoins and window dressings. It has a hipped roof of Swithland slate, with a central chimney made of narrow bricks with diagonal shafts flanking a square shaft, and a similar chimney with two diagonal shafts to the rear of the left bay. The main elevation has two storeys and an attic, with a four-bay front and a projecting central porch. A slightly projecting plinth and a moulded stone string course at first-floor level are visible, along with coved plaster eaves with a moulded lower border. The windows are stone mullion windows. Three bays to the left of the ground floor have four-light transomed windows, renewed around 1900 with stained glass in the upper lights, while windows in bays one and three retain original moulded lintels. Traces of a blocked archway were removed from the right bay around 1985. The first floor has 17th-century three-light windows with moulded mullions and old leaded glazing with diamond panes, although the left window was renewed. The upper window in the right bay is of two lights. The central porch projection is two storeys high, with the upper storey slightly jettied on wooden beams and dragon beams with fluted ornament at the ends. A wooden bressummer has scalloped ornament. The ground floor of the porch has an ovolo-moulded segmental stone arch with a 20th-century board and stud door, and small oval side windows in stone surrounds with cyma recta cornices. The upper storey has single lights to each side. The attic storey of the projection was removed during restoration work in 1985. Small hipped dormers are at each end of the main roof. There are three gabled projections to the rear of the left bays, and a brick lobby extension of around 1900 is located in the rear angle.

The interior of the porch provides access only to the left bays, which contain stone fireplaces with four-centred arches on the ground floor, suggesting a possible prior non-domestic function in the right bays. Traces of blocked semicircular archways between the front wing and central rear wing may indicate an earlier alignment, but this could also be a feature of the 1900 remodelling. The central rear wing has stop-chamfered spine beams and queen strut trusses. The front wing has a roof with raking queen post trusses and reused heavy timbers. An 18th-century moulded brick fireplace is built onto the right side of the central stack at first-floor level. The first floor level was raised around 1900, incorporating panelling in a first-floor room of the left bay, a large wooden fireplace surround in Jacobethan style in the rear wing, and wallpaper embossed with a strapwork design around the dado of the hall.