Locksley Hall

Locksley Hall is a house that combines 16th-century fabric with a major reconstruction undertaken in 1921–5. It is constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings, some render and some applied timber framing. The roof is hipped with concrete tiles, behind ashlar-dressed brick parapets with ball finials at the corners. The building has a single ridge stack and a single projecting stack with two angle shafts.

The south front, dating from the 1921–5 reconstruction, is two storeys and four bays, with a projecting left-hand bay and two right-hand bays set back. To the left is a doorway with a four-centred head and upper foliate decoration, moulded jambs and a heavy plank door. The adjacent rectangular bay window has a three-light mullion window with single lights on the return walls. To the right of the doorway is a projecting east wall with a three-light mullion window with moulded string course above. A further doorway with four-centred head and plank door opens in the south wall to the right, with a mullion window of four triangular-headed lights beyond. Above this doorway is a large plaque inscribed with dates 1500 and 1925, beneath which is a single-light window with triangular head. A three-light cross-mullion window sits to the left. The projecting east wall to the right of this doorway carries a three-light mullion window with hood mould. A two-light window above the doorway to the right has a moulded cornice. A mullion window to the right displays six triangular-headed lights.

The east side has a plinth and a single triangular-headed light to the left with hood mould and moulded string course. To the right is a five-light mullion window with a central flat-headed light flanked by two triangular-headed lights on each side, and a hood mould. Timber framing appears above. A single-light triangular-headed window to the left has a hood mould, and a three-light mullion window with hood mould has a carved plaque above.

The 16th-century west side features a plinth with a chimney breast to the right and a 20th-century mullion window to the left with three triangular-headed lights and hood mould. A moulded string course and applied timber framing appear above. A mullion window to the left has three triangular-headed lights and hood mould.

The north front is four bays, with two 16th-century bays to the right and a projecting 20th-century staircase bay to the left with a 20th-century bay set back beyond. The staircase bay has a three-light cross-mullion window with hood mould and a slit light above with a parapet rising to a segmental-headed pediment. The return walls of the staircase bay have pilaster buttresses. The two bays to the right have a plinth. A three-light 20th-century mullion window to the left has hood mould with a single-light window beyond with hood mould. A single-light window to the left of the staircase bay has a triangular head and hood mould. A four-light mullion window with hood mould appears above to the right. A single-light window with triangular head and hood mould sits above to the left.

Interior features are substantial. The 16th-century morning room retains original 18th-century fielded panelling with a delicate dentillated cornice. A broad, deep fireplace has a 20th-century red-brick back and an early 20th-century richly carved mahogany bressummer. A 16th-century chamfered beam runs across the room with finely carved stops. The east window contains three panels of 16th-century stained glass: two of knights and one of the Last Supper.

The dining room of 1921–5 has 17th-century fielded panels and two richly carved beams. The fireplace is 20th-century but reuses 13th-century panels with crudely carved figures. The west window contains stained-glass panels including a 16th-century panel of St Martin, a bishop and a marriage scene, and two 19th-century shields.

The hall has a bell chamber above. A stone fireplace in the style of Eric Gill depicts figures ploughing, sowing and harvesting with angels. Ornately carved beams and the staircase feature carved figures of mermaids, a ship and a squirrel with acorns. The cornice is richly carved with birds, flowers and fruit. Panelling includes three panels with shields dated 1584. The staircase window contains six lights full of medieval glass fragments, including a 14th-century black and yellow canopy, a 15th-century head of a bishop, three nimbed boys, a woman with an apple of circa 1430, two French 15th-century angels with scrolls, various figures from Chertsey Abbey including a youth in an orange robe and the head of a girl, and a 14th-century shield from Cantley Church in Norfolk. A small hall window has various 14th-century quarries, mostly in grisaille. The ornate cross-beamed hall ceiling has two half bell shapes embedded in the cornice on each side.

The north window of the main bedroom contains a number of 14th-, 15th-, 16th- and 17th-century heads and two pieces of grisaille. A bedroom features an ornately carved doorcase, beams and cornice. Two other bedrooms, a small lobby and a bathroom all have richly carved cornices, panelling and fragments of medieval and Renaissance stained glass reset in windows.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson stayed at Locksley Hall as a child and again later in his life. He wrote much of his early poetry here and commemorated the Hall in his poems "Locksley Hall" and "Locksley Hall Sixty Years Afterwards".