Skeffington Hall

Skeffington Hall is a large house, now divided into two residences, dating back to circa 1450. It was extended around 1530 and again in the 17th century. The building is constructed largely of coursed ironstone rubble with white limestone ashlar dressings, and has Swithland slate roofs. The overall layout is H-shaped, with the oldest section forming the south wing.

The main front reflects the 17th-century construction, featuring eight bays with outer, coped gables. Each gable has two 2-light mullioned and transomed windows on each floor. A projecting, balustraded porch shelters the central doorway, featuring fluted shafts and consoles supporting a scrolled open pediment. There is a 2-light mullioned and transomed window on either side of the doorway at ground floor level, and an additional pair of windows to the left, illuminating the staircase. Above the porch is a canted oriel bay window with mullioned and transomed lights. All windows have ovolo mouldings. An embattled parapet runs between the two gables, with paired string courses continuing across the facade at parapet level. Dormers are visible in the roof.

The south front is divided into three distinct sections. The right-hand section is the return wall of the 17th-century front range, with two 2-light mullioned and transomed windows on each floor and an embattled parapet above. A block dating from around 1530, in white ashlar, projects slightly to the left, forming a full-height square bay. This bay is now built up against its west side and has blind tracery panels in its east wall. The front contains paired 3-light mullioned and transomed windows, with a square head below and scrolled decoration above, enclosed within a composition of blank traceried panels and shields, topped with a projecting string course featuring flag-staff holders. It has embattled parapets and two dormers. Two bays to the left are of ironstone, with finely coursed work, and the date is uncertain, but the 3-light mullioned and transomed windows are Victorian insertions.

The rear of this range reveals the earliest part of the building, a full-height canted bay window with depressed 4-centred arched windows below and true 4-centred arched lights above, framed by ornately moulded architraves. It has an embattled parapet and low, chamfered sills, representing the bay at the dais end of a hall house. To the right, and of later date, are two bays with a single light on each floor to the left, and a Palladian window on each floor beyond – these were possibly removed from the south elevation in the 19th century. The rear of the main range has a chamfered 4-centred doorway, dating from the 16th or early 17th century, with an original oak panelled door, and a full-height Victorian canted bay window with mullioned and transomed lights. It has an embattled parapet and a string course running across the entire facade.

The building features gable and axial stacks. Inside, there is an intricately carved wood Tudor chimney piece with grotesque figures in the main hall, although it may have been re-sited from another room. A 4-centred arched stone fireplace with a Charles I fireback is located in another room. A Victorian drawing room is panelled in a 17th or 18th century style with some armorial glass.