Marston Hall

Marston Hall is a small country house with a complex history, dating to the late 16th century, with substantial alterations in the 17th and 18th centuries, specifically 1699 and around 1720. It is constructed of limestone ashlar, coursed rubble, and red brick, with steep-pitched roofs covered in plain tiles and pantiles, featuring stone coped gables, three gable stacks, and a large projecting stack to the rear. Originally designed with an E-plan and a central open hall, it was modified around 1720.

The house is two storeys high, with an attic over the three lower north-west bays. The front is eight bays wide, with a projecting two-storey porch that spans three bays to the northwest, the two bays furthest from this porch built of rubble, and four bays to the southeast, the bay furthest from the porch projecting level with the porch itself. The porch doorway features a four-centred arch under a rectangular head with a hood mould and modern double-glazed doors. Within the porch is a heavy 16th-century door. A plinth runs beneath the first bay on the northwest side of the porch, extending around the porch and the four bays to the southeast. A moulded string course, dating from the 16th century, runs over the porch and the four bays to the southeast, interrupted by the doorway and four 18th-century windows. Above these are four windows and a single window over the porch door, all with cross-mullion casements with glazing bars. An 18th-century parapet runs above the porch and the southeast bays. Above the porch doorway is a large heraldic shield displaying the Thorold family arms.

The lower three-bay block on the northwest side has a later 16th-century doorway inserted, featuring a four-centred moulded head and a small heraldic shield above. Two windows are present to the southeast of this doorway, with three above. All have cross-mullion casements with glazing bars. A single dormer above also features a casement. The northeast front, built of coursed rubble, displays a large, rectangular, blocked 16th-century hall window, a screens passage doorway to the northwest, and a large projecting stack to the southeast. The fenestration is of an irregular 18th-century design.

Internally, the hall was divided by a ceiling around 1720. A large chimney piece on the northeast wall was moved several feet to the northwest during the same period. This chimney piece features a late Elizabethan wood overmantel with fluted Ionic pilasters, strapwork, ruffed and bearded caryatid figures, and the Thorold coat of arms within a cartouche with helmet and draperies. An early 18th-century stone chimney piece sits below. A cupboard in the northwest wall of the hall contains a 16th-century four-centred arch leading to a blocked screens entrance. A heavy oak staircase was inserted around 1720. A room above the upper end of the 16th-century hall contains an ornate plaster ceiling and painted panelling dating from 1699, decorated with the coats of arms of various branches of the Thorold family, relocated from Burston House, Devon in 1972. The interior also incorporates various late 17th and early 18th-century fireplaces.