The Old Hall

THE OLD HALL

A small country house, now used as a home for the elderly, standing on the east side of Billingborough High Street. The building spans from the late 16th century through to the early 19th century, with successive phases of enlargement and alteration visible in its structure and finishes.

The main fabric consists of coursed limestone rubble with limestone ashlar and some red brick. The roof is covered with Collyweston tiles and red ridge tiling, featuring stone coped gables with ball finials and two large tripartite stacks — one of ashlar and one of rendered brick — plus a single tall rendered brick lateral stack.

The building began as a late 16th-century H-plan house. An early 17th-century bay was added to the west side, the northern arm of the H was enclosed around 1660, and the southern arm was enclosed in the early 18th century. The house now rises to two storeys with attics and a cellar.

The north front has seven bays and displays three gables over the six bays to the left, with a small gabled early 17th-century bay to the right. Two lines of quoins separate the two central bays from the two outer bays on each side, revealing the insertion of these elements into the original H-plan structure. An early 19th-century doorway to the left has a plain doorcase, overlight and partially glazed door. Window openings of various dates are scattered across this elevation: a single mid-17th-century cross-mullion window with casements; mid-19th-century canted bay windows with three long glazing bar sashes divided by slender pilasters; a two-light 17th-century mullion basement window with a cross-mullion window above; early 17th-century four-light cavetto-mullion windows with moulded cornices; six cross-mullion windows of around 1660 with casements; and three-light mullion windows with casements in the larger gables to the left. An illegible datestone appears above one of the windows on the right side.

The west side of the early 17th-century range has a single two-light cavetto-mullion window with casements and moulded cornice. An early 18th-century three-storied porch stands on the right side, with an early 19th-century lean-to addition built against it. This porch features an early 18th-century bolection-moulded ashlar doorcase with a large raised keystone and double partially glazed doors. Above are two three-light cavetto-mullion windows with moulded cornices. An early 19th-century ground floor section with 11 ogee-headed panels and various casements runs southwards, with a three-light cavetto-mullion window above it, also featuring a moulded cornice.

The south front has seven bays with a pair of outer gabled bays and a smaller gabled earlier 17th-century bay with kneelers to the left. Two lines of quoins again separate the three central early 18th-century bays from the two outer bays on each side, indicating their insertion into an earlier H-plan. A doorway to the right has a 18th-century ashlar lintel with keystone, overlight and double partially glazed doors; beyond it is a single glazing bar sash with a segmental head, ashlar lintel and keystone. Another doorway to the left has an ashlar wedge lintel, overlight and partially glazed door, with two glazing bar sashes to the left featuring ashlar wedge lintels and two more beyond with raised keystones. Seven glazing bar sashes above all have segmental heads and raised keystones. Moulded eaves crown the central three bays, above which is an ashlar coped parapet and two pedimented dormers with two-light casements. The outer pairs of bays each have a single glazing bar sash in the gable with segmental head and raised keystone. The earlier 17th-century bay to the left is set back slightly and has a four-light cavetto-mullion window with casements and moulded cornice at ground level, with a three-light cavetto-mullion window above it, similarly detailed. A very narrow gabled bay to the left has a 19th-century panelled ground floor and a small oriel window above with two-light mullion casements.

The east front comprises four bays with an early 19th-century doorway inserted to the right, featuring a traceried overlight and panelled door leading to a servants' staircase to the attic rooms. Two 18th-century glazing bar sashes stand to the left with another to the right, and two more glazing bar sashes above, all with ashlar wedge lintels. An early 19th-century two-storey red brick extension extends to the north east, fitted with 20th-century fenestration.

Internally, the house retains a fine heavy oak two-flight return staircase dating to around 1660, featuring heavy turned balusters with four clustered around the newel and a thickly moulded handrail. The walls are finished with fielded panelling. A hall doorway has a 17th-century oak doorcase with broken pediment, eared moulded architrave and a later panelled door. Three early 18th-century doorways on the first floor have bolection-moulded doorcases and panelled doors. A mid-17th-century stone fireplace in the drawing room has a flat head with chamfered corners and a quite flat profile, accompanied by a 20th-century bracketed stone mantelpiece.