Berrington Hall And Adjoining Outbuildings

Berrington Hall is a country house built between 1778 and 1781 by architect Henry Holland for Thomas Harley. The house stands in parkland laid out by Capability Brown. Between approximately 1890 and 1900, a tower was added to the rear of the house, which was removed in 1968 and the original pediment reinstated.

The building has a brick core faced with sandstone ashlar, with sandstone dressings and hipped Welsh slate roofs. The main house is rectangular in plan with a central entrance and stairwell, with axial chimney stacks. The south-west entrance front features seven bays with a plinth, dentilled cornice, blocking course and balustraded parapet. A central projecting tetrastyle Ionic portico with steps up to its entrance is the focal point. The frieze is decorated in its central part by a floral design, which replaces an original design of putti, ox heads and garlands. The pediment contains a lunette window.

The house rises two storeys with attics and basements. Dormer windows with glazing bar sash windows light the attics. First floor windows are glazing bar sash windows with semi-circular heads, with decorative glazing to those flanking the portico. Ground floor windows are square-headed glazing bar sash windows. The basement windows are semi-circular headed with rusticated surrounds. The central doorway is tall and narrow with a semi-circular head, a panelled door with a keystone depicting a Roman head, and is flanked by narrow side lights with reliefs depicting urns above.

The north-west front displays five bays with a pediment over the central three bays. The north-east front to the courtyard entrance is of 2:3:2 bays with a central pedimented break slightly forward. This front has semi-circular headed glazing bar sash windows to the upper floor and square-headed windows to the ground floor. The central three openings are set in semi-circular headed surrounds, with the right-hand opening now forming a doorway with a six-panelled door.

Quadrant walls connect the main block with three outbuildings, which form a courtyard to the rear. The adjoining walls have been altered and one has been removed.

The outbuildings enclosing the courtyard are two storeys high. The north-east range comprises nine bays with a central pedimented archway flanked by pairs of Doric pilasters. A clock face sits in the pediment. A string course runs across the flanking bays, which have 6-pane square-headed windows to the upper floor and semi-circular headed windows with decorative glazing to the ground floor.

The north-west and south-east ranges each have nine bays with similar fenestration above and below. The central window to each range has a moulded architrave. Semi-circular headed window and doorway openings occupy the ground floors. On the outer walls of these flanking ranges, facing the gardens, are central niches with coffered semi-domes and ball cresting above. The south-western ends of both ranges feature a blank semi-circular headed arch flanked by oculi.

The interior of the main house retains many original features across both main floors, including decorative surrounds to doorways, plastered ceilings and marble fireplaces.

The entrance hall features trophies in roundels above the doors. A central circular ceiling panel is carried to the corners on spandrels. A pedimented surround frames the doorway opposite the entrance. The floor is laid in polychrome marble with a geometric pattern.

The Drawing Room retains original elaborate pelmets above its three windows and a marble fireplace with caryatids and a griffon frieze. The ceiling is delicately patterned with painted roundels depicting scenes and characters from classical mythology, along with putti and sea horses. Entwined roundels form the outer border, flanking a central theme.

The boudoir features an alcove with a segmental arch and a screen of two blue scagliola columns.

The Dining Room has a good marble fireplace with carved panels to the jambs. The decorative plastered and painted ceiling features a central painted roundel surrounded by swagged and wreathed plasterwork.

The library contains pedimented bookcases with a continuous "greekkey" type frieze. Decorative painted panels to the ceiling depict authors from Chaucer to Addison.

The central staircase hall is lit by a delicately iron-ribbed glass domed lantern. Opposite the staircase is a coffered archway. The staircase and landings are carried on screens of scagliola columns, with a decorative dolphin frieze to the entablature. The staircase has bronze lyre-shaped balustrading.

The north-west outbuilding formerly served as the laundry and retains many of its original fittings. A tiled dairy has been restored in the south-east range. The north-east range contains part stabling.