Elston Hall

Elston Hall is a country house dating from 1756, with a garden front of 1837 and later 19th-century and circa 1950 extensions. It is now divided into 10 maisonnettes. The building is constructed of blue lias with ashlar dressings, red brick and render.

The front elevation presents a substantial 18th-century range of blue lias with ashlar quoins and dressings, covered with a plain tile roof. Two ashlar red brick stacks, each with three shafts with chamfered corners, punctuate the roofline. An ashlar parapet with a moulded band beneath it runs across the facade. The central single bay features a shaped parapet with a crudely carved half-length statue of a drummer boy set upon a plinth with a chamfered ashlar band. The building originally had an H-shaped plan and is two storeys tall with an attic storey, arranged across nine bays. The outer two bays on each side project forward and have ashlar coped gables with kneelers. The slightly projecting central bay has raised ashlar quoins.

The central doorway is flanked by projecting balustraded ashlar walls and comprises an eight-fielded panelled door with a rusticated architrave surround, keystone and pediment. To either side are pairs of glazing bar sashes, and further outward are single doorways with glazing bar and panelled 20th-century doors set in former window openings. The outermost bays contain single similar sashes. The first floor above the central doorway has a single round arched glazing bar sash with single fluted pilasters on either side supporting an architrave with a fluted keystone dated 1756; two brackets support the sill. Flanking this are four glazing bar sashes. The gables above contain single smaller glazing bar sashes. All sashes and 20th-century doorways have eared segmental arched architraves with keystones. Three gabled dormers with render and plain tile covering each contain a single glazing bar casement, with the central dormer being the largest.

To the right and projecting is a late 19th-century wing of red brick and slate with single similar stacks. This section has a shaped ashlar coped parapet with low gables over the outer single bays, a first-floor band, and three glazing bar sashes with panelling below in moulded surrounds matching the 18th-century range. Above are three smaller similar sashes with similar surrounds, their sills supported on two brackets with a continuous hood mould band. Further right, set back, is a 20th-century wing of two storeys and four bays in red brick and cement render with a balustraded parapet, glazing bar door and glazing bar casements. A projecting lean-to with a doorway in the side wall and four window openings to the front is attached to this section. Set back and attached to the former wing is another similar two-storey, three-bay wing with glazing bar doors and casements. To the left of the 18th-century wing and slightly set back is a further similar two-storey, eight-bay 20th-century wing with matching doors and casements.

The rear or garden front, dated 1837, is of red brick with slate and plain tile roofs. This elevation features a two-storey, three-bay canted centre with outer two-and-a-half storey, two-bay gabled wings. The gables are ashlar coped with kneelers, each surmounted by a single red brick stack with two shafts rising from the apex. The central three bays have a hipped roof and ashlar coped parapet, with first-floor and window bands. The projecting central bay has an ashlar coped gable with kneelers and is flanked by single octagonal ashler coped brick piers rising above the kneelers.

The central recessed porch has an outer Tudor archway supported on engaged colonnettes with quatrefoils in the spandrels and a hood mould above. The inner Tudor arched doorway contains double doors with glazing bars to the top half and decorative panels below. An overlight above with Gothick glazing bars features a stained glass panel bearing a Darwin crest and dated 1837. Single similar marginal lights and panels flank the door. Either side are single tripartite glazing bar cross casements. Further outward are single doorways with 20th-century glazing bar and panelled doors and single outer glazing bar sashes. The first floor above has a single central tripartite glazing bar cross casement flanked by single glazing bar cross casements, with single glazing bar casements in the side walls. Each outer gabled wing contains two glazing bar sashes, with a central ashlar shield above in one of the gabled wings, which also contain single small glazing bar double sashes with single decorative cross arrow loops above. All openings have Tudor style hood moulds and label stops.

To the left and set back is a later 19th-century gabled wing of two storeys plus attic and two bays in red brick with ashlar coped gables, kneelers and a single stack with three shafts rising from the apex. This section has glazing bar sashes on both ground and first floors, with a single similar sash above, all featuring Tudor style hood moulds and label stops; the top-floor sash is continuous. The apex is decorated with a simple stylised ashlar quatrefoil. Further left and set back is a red brick and cement rendered wing with a balustraded parapet, two storeys and three bays. A central doorway has a glazing bar and panelled double door with an overlight topped by a pediment supported on brackets, from which rise single outer large finials. Either side are single large glazing bar cross casements with two similar larger casements above. Further left are various 20th-century cement rendered wings with glazing bar casements and doors. Similar 20th-century wings are attached to the right of the 18th-century range.

The interior contains several rooms of note. A room to the left of the 18th-century doorway features a bolection moulded fireplace, panelled walls and an ornamental panelled ceiling, with an eared architrave to its panelled door. The room to the right has a mid-18th-century fireplace with a carved frieze and a large shouldered, carved architrave. The rear hall of 1837 has Gothick panelled doors and reveals leading to front rooms, a panelled ceiling, and an archway with Gothick panelled reveal. The rear of the main door features Gothick panelling and a Gothick panelled surround. The first floor contains three rooms in the 19th-century wing with panelled ceilings. Two of these rooms have panels decorated with egg-and-dart and bead motif with large central plaster faces, panelled walls, and one contains a smaller version of the carved fireplace from the ground floor. A 19th-century dogleg stair with machine-turned balusters is present.

Elston Hall was the birthplace of Erasmus Darwin.