Noseley Hall

Noseley Hall

Country house, largely dating from around 1725, possibly built on the foundations of an Elizabethan house, with substantial modernisation and alterations carried out in the late 19th century. The building is constructed of ironstone and brick, mostly rendered over, with Welsh slate roofs. It is two storeys high with basements and attics, arranged in a U-plan.

The south front displays eleven bays arranged as 4-3-4, with the central three bays advanced. Giant Tuscan pilasters mark all angles. The centrepiece features a stone doorway with a lugged and minutely carved architrave, the family crest in the keystone flanked by emblems, and a pediment supported on consoles. In the outer bays are wide, shallow canted bay windows containing three sashes with balustrated parapets. Throughout the south front, fenestration consists of 12-light sash windows with cambered heads and stuccoed keystones; the central window of the central bay has its keystone carved into foliate design. All windows have outer blind cases. A balustraded parapet crowns the elevation, with the roof set back behind it and fitted with hipped dormer attic windows. The parapet replaced an earlier plainer design, and the Tuscan columns replaced Corinthian columns during a refurbishment around 1890. Flanking the central bays, two richly wrought lead downpipes decorated with the family crest and emblems are dated 1728.

The west front comprises five bays with a four-bay wing set slightly in recession beyond. A central doorway was inserted during late 19th-century alterations, featuring a projecting architrave with engaged Tuscan columns and balustrading. The windows are 2-light sashes with cambered heads. The four-bay wing is of less height and has a brick sill band concealed behind the render; it contains 18-light sash windows, including one wide triple-light sash window to the ground floor. Parapet details continue from the south front.

The rear elevation forms a courtyard. The main range is of brick, five bays wide, with a single-storey pent corridor containing two doorways and cambered-head lights. Sash windows above to principal and first floors have cambered heads, mostly of 18-light design. A full-height round-headed window lights the stair. A projecting pavilion to the left has a single bay with a flat roof and triple-light sash windows in each of its three upper floors, with wood eaves cornice. The west wing is of coursed ironstone rubble, two storeys high with a basement, containing 12-light sash windows with cambered heads. The east wing is the service wing; it has a single-storey pent corridor with three bays of open arcading at its left-hand end and an ironstone plinth. This wing housed the kitchens of the 18th-century house.

The interior retains the plan and much decorative detail of the 18th-century house. The Stone Hall, rising the full height of the building, is articulated by Corinthian pilasters and panels. Above the cornice, pilasters carrying foliate swags flank various paintings, including two of a favoured horse named Ringtail, dating from around 1725. The painted ceiling is attributed to Verrio, though it may have been executed by his studio. According to tradition, the 7th Baronet, who was partly responsible for rebuilding the hall, is depicted in the ceiling being carried by Hercules and Fortune to Jupiter. The dining room features oak and gilt panelling. The study has a ceiling by Italian stuccadori; a central oval and flanking panels with foliate decoration are contained within a heavily wrought framework of tiny rosettes. This room contains a series of paintings by Pannini depicting Cappricci of Roman antiquities, and the room was specifically designed to display them. The early 18th-century staircase is an open-string stair with twisted balusters, three to a tread, and carved tread ends and dado panels. The house retains fine plaster cornices, marble fireplaces, and good door furniture throughout.

The house has been in the hands of the Hazelrigg family since the 15th century. The 18th-century rebuilding was begun by Robert Hazelrigg, who died in 1721, and was probably continued by his son, the 7th Baronet.