Newbold Verdon Hall

Newbold Verdon Hall

Former country house, now farmhouse, dating from around 1700 with a later 19th-century addition and minor alterations from the 19th and 20th centuries. It was built for Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew of Stene in Northamptonshire, who was Bishop of Durham from 1674 until his death in 1721.

The building is constructed of red brick in English bond with ashlar dressings. It has a large hipped plain tiled roof with lead dressings and a flat top, topped with four brick roof stacks, each with triple shafts and brick cornices. The house follows a double-pile symmetrical plan of 5 by 3 bays, with 2 storeys plus a raised basement and an attic. Stone string courses mark the ground and first floors. The eaves overhang with a moulded wood cornice and lined soffit. All windows feature rubbed brick flat arches and projecting stone cills.

The entrance and garden fronts are arranged with an emphasis on the central bays, which project slightly, in a 1:3:1 proportion. The side elevations follow a similar 1:1:1 arrangement. The entrance front faces east and has early 20th-century double panelled doors with a rectangular overlight at its centre, set within a pedimented Gibbsian surround with a small shield on the keystone. The doors are approached by a flight of eight stone steps. Pairs of glazing bar sashes flank the doorway, though those immediately beside it have been lowered. On the first floor, a central glazing bar sash is flanked by a single blocked opening and a further matching sash window.

The garden front to the west features a grassed ramp with curved stone-coped brick side walls leading to the central doorway, which is now filled with a glazing bar sash window with a panel beneath. This doorway retains a stone moulded architrave and is flanked by Ionic half columns supporting a pedimented entablature with a pulvinated frieze. Pairs of glazing bar sashes flank this feature. On the first floor, three glazing bar sashes are flanked by single blocked openings. To the left of the central projection is a narrow inserted 20th-century sash.

The south side has a central doorway with moulded stone surround and cornice, now blocked by a sash window. Beneath is a semi-circular headed doorway to the basement. To the right is a blocked opening, and to the left a glazing bar sash. The first floor has two blocked openings and a further sash. The north side follows a similar arrangement but is now partly obscured by the later extension.

Interior

The central entrance hall is paved in stone and features a dais raised three steps opposite the entrance, which provides access to a lateral passage through three round-headed arches. To the right of the hall is a parlour displaying full-height fielded oak panelling, with a cupboard featuring marble shelves inserted into the west wall. Adjacent to this room, accessed from the lateral passage, is the secondary staircase with turned balusters. The principal staircase, reached from the south end of the passage, has an open well with its upper landing supported by a pair of Ionic columns. The oak staircase features a pulvinated string richly carved with wreathed bands, sturdy vasiform balusters, a carved handrail, and square newels carved with laurel leaves. The plaster ceiling above displays a coved cornice richly moulded as a frieze of garlands. A similar cornice appears in the first-floor saloon above the entrance hall. Most rooms retain their original oak panelled doors and architraves, plaster cornices, and some contemporary bolection moulded fireplaces remain in place.

Setting

The house stands just to the north of a moated site that originally surrounded the earlier manor house. It is approached from the end of the village Main Street through a long axial forecourt defined by three of formerly four pavilions, one in each corner of the court.