Widmerpool Hall

Widmerpool Hall is a country house built in 1872–3 by architect Henry Clutton for Major Roberts. It is now used as a training college for the Automobile Association. The building has undergone some 20th-century alterations.

The house is constructed of ashlar with a plain tile roof. Rooflines are marked by ashlar coped gables with single ridge finials. Several irregularly dispersed groups of ashlar chimney stacks, some external, are all set diagonally.

A distinctive single Italianate clock tower of two stages rises over the ridge. The top stage projects slightly over a supporting band with mock machicolations. It is topped with bands and a parapet decorated with open arched and cusped panels, with single corner finials and gargoyles. The first stage of the tower features single arched lights with single transoms under flat arches with hood moulds and decorative label stops. The second stage has on each side a single rectangular panel formerly containing a clock face but now with a single large roundel and single small roundels in the panelled spandrels, topped with hood mould and label stops.

The entrance front is highly irregular, comprising 2 storeys plus attic, 2 storeys and single storey plus attic, spanning 16 bays. The composition is complex: the first, third and fifth single bays from the left are 2 storeys plus garret and gabled; the second and fourth left single bays are 2 storeys; bays six, seven and eight are one and a half storeys; bays nine through twelve are single storey plus attic; the thirteenth bay is single storey plus garret and gabled; the remaining three bays are single storey. The first and second bays and fourth and fifth bays from the left slightly project and have single corner gargoyles. The right four bays project. The left five bays are set on a moulded plinth, with a cornice. The left nine bays have a band over ground floor openings, broken by the porch and forming a hood mould over the window in the sixth bay from the left.

Ground floor openings include a gabled porch with moulded arched entrance and panelled spandrels each containing a single roundel, topped with a hood mould. Side walls each have a single window with two arched lights and drip mould, with an inner moulded arched doorway containing panelled double doors. The remaining ground floor contains windows with varying numbers of arched lights—single lights, two-light, three-light and four-light windows—most with drip moulds. Some have single transoms or hood moulds with label stops. A 20th-century doorway and door are present. The far right features three small fixed lights.

First floor windows number four with four arched lights and single transoms, one larger window with four arched lights and two transoms containing stained glass, and one window with three arched lights. Three gabled dormers each feature a single window with three arched lights and single transom, with a single slit ventilator. Above these are three windows each with three arched lights and drip mould. To the left of the tower base is a single small three-light window. All windows throughout are ashlar casements.

The cornice to the left spans five bays. Those not gabled feature a similar parapet to the tower.

The irregular garden front has the right five bays as 2 storeys plus attic and the left four bays as single storey plus attic. The right five bays alternate between two single bays and three two-storey canted bays which are gabled over. The single left bay is gabled. The second, third and fourth bays from the left feature gabled dormers. All windows are arched ashlar casements, some with transoms.

The interior contains an open well staircase with tapering fluted balusters and some oak panelling.