Shireoaks Hall

Shireoaks Hall is a small country house dating to around 1600, probably designed by Robert Smythson for Henry Hewett. Sir Thomas Hewett, who served as Surveyor of Woods North of Trent from 1696 to 1716 and Surveyor of the Royal Works from 1719 to 1726, altered the building around 1700 for his own use. The house was partly demolished and gutted around 1811, then restored in 1812 and further restored after 1975.

The building is constructed of coursed squared rubble with slate roofs and ashlar dressings. It features a chamfered plinth, first floor and lintel bands, string courses, and a coped parapet that is partly battlemented. The structure is three storeys tall with a casement level, spans seven bays, and follows a cross plan. It has two rear wall stacks and a single side wall stack.

The irregular south-west front has an off-centre panelled door with an overlight, flanked to the left by three glazing bar sashes and to the right by a mullioned and transomed opening to the basement and a single glazing bar sash. Above are five blocked openings and two glazing bar sashes, and a further five blocked openings above those. The south-east front has a projecting central bay with a French window with moulded hood, flanked to the left by a two-light mullioned basement window and a single plain sash, and to the right by a late 19th-century addition in coursed squared rubble with a hipped slate roof and two mullioned windows, the left one blocked. Above this level, a tall central glazing bar sash is flanked to the left by a tall chamfered and rebated blocked opening and a similar square unglazed opening, and to the right by a single glazing bar sash. A further level above contains two central tall blocked openings, and to the left, two six-light mullioned and transomed windows.

A rear addition contains two mullioned and transomed windows and above, three glazing bar sashes, with a doorway in the return angle. The north-east rear elevation has irregular fenestration with a chamfered doorway to the right, now glazed, a single 19th-century glazing bar sash, a blocked opening and an unglazed opening. The north-west side features a full-height projecting bay to the left and remains of lean-to outbuildings to the right, along with an attached laundry building dating to around 1700 with a hipped pantile roof and a large 20th-century opening. The basement has a chamfered and rebated doorway to the left and, in the projecting bay, a similar doorway and blocked opening. The outbuildings contain a single cross-transomed window, above which is irregular fenestration with two 19th-century plain sashes, a single partly-blocked cross-transomed window, and seven blocked openings.

The basements contain two chamfered square-headed ashlar doorways and a similar segmental-headed doorway, along with a blocked Tudor-arched kitchen fireplace with flanking openings. The entrance hall features 18th-century fielded panelling. The drawing room to the left has a 19th-century moulded cornice and bolection-moulded marble fireplace. A closet to the rear contains 17th-century framed panelling and a 19th-century marble fireplace. The dining room to the right has a late 17th-century moulded surround with scroll top to its French window. The study to the right features 18th-century fielded panelling, a moulded cornice and dado, and an 18th-century pierced oak door. The stairwell to the right contains an original spiral stair with a square ashlar newel and stone treads. The first floor has a Classical impost to a first floor doorway on the right; the passage contains a mullioned borrowed light and the keystone and imposts of the Hall fireplace, along with some half-height framed panelling, three 19th-century fireplaces and three 19th-century panelled doors.