Dinthill Hall

Dinthill Hall is a small country house dated 1734 by rainwater heads, built for Leighton and Anne Griffiths. A mid-to-late 18th-century addition was made subsequently. The house is constructed of red brick with painted sandstone ashlar dressings, beneath slate roofs with a 2-span to the right. It is arranged in an L-plan with a service wing to the west and a later infill block at the rear.

The main building is of two storeys and attic over basement, with a 2-storey addition and a service wing of one storey with a gable-lit attic. The north front features a plinth with a moulded stone top, chamfered stone quoins, and a moulded stone cornice broken forward over the quoins, all supporting a parapet with moulded stone coping. Tall integral brick end stacks with front panels and oversailing caps are topped by gable-end parapets to the rear. Three dormers contain 2-light wooden casements with triangular pediments. Six bays are articulated by glazing bar sashes with moulded stone cills and gauged-brick heads featuring raised keystones. A central 18th-century oak door with 10 raised and fielded panels is housed in a doorcase with a moulded architrave, pulvinated frieze, flanking panelled pilasters, and scrolled brackets supporting a segmental pediment with a cornice broken back to centre. Flanking narrow 8-pane sashes flank the door, which is approached by seven grey sandstone steps with moulded nosings and flanking plain wrought-iron railings curving outwards at the base to cast-iron end balusters. A fire insurance plate appears above the doorway. The right-hand gable end displays a first-floor segmental-headed boxed glazing bar sash to the right, while the left-hand gable end has a first-floor segmental-headed boxed glazing bar sash to the left and a ground-floor glazing bar sash to the left with a stone cill and gauged-brick head. Each gable end features an 18th-century cast rainwater head superscribed with the letter G, a moulded cornice above, and a mask below, with 20th-century downpipes.

The rear left-hand wing has a moulded wooden eaves cornice and a parapeted gable end with a moulded stone coping dated 1734 and a square brick ridge stack to the rear. The east front contains a gabled dormer with a 4-pane sash and is organised in four bays with first-floor boxed glazing bar sashes. A large ground-floor bow with a coped parapet and tripartite glazing bar sash with a stone cill and lintel is flanked by a small 18th-century glazing bar sash to the right. An 18th-century door to the west has 8 raised and fielded panels, the top two glazed, with a moulded architrave and bracketed hood. The gable end features a segmental-headed 2-light attic window, a first-floor boxed 8-pane glazing bar sash to the left, and a pair of ground-floor boxed 4-pane sashes, with the left-hand ground-floor window later replaced with a casement. A late 18th-century block infills the angle at the rear, marked by a straight joint to the west, with a parapeted gable end and a stack in the valley. Its two bays contain segmental-headed glazing bar sashes (boxed to the right) with stone cills.

The service block to the west has a hipped roof to the front. A parapeted gable end to the rear displays a moulded stone coping and a central large square brick ridge stack. The east side shows a pair of wooden cross windows to the right, with the right-hand one partially obscured by a later linking range, and a door to the left with 6 raised and fielded panels, a pegged frame, and a bracketed flat hood. The gable end to the rear contains a segmental-headed wooden cross window to the attic and a ground-floor window altered with an inserted 20th-century casement. A wooden cross window and a small 2-light wooden casement appear to the west. A one-storey link to the main block has a probably relocated 18th-century oak door with 10 raised and fielded panels.

The interior of the house is mostly from circa 1734 with some early 19th-century alterations. The entrance hall contains reordered 17th-century-type oak panelling with a husk garland around the ceiling rose. A fireplace to the rear features a beaded round arch and a cast-iron stove. The left- and right-hand ground-floor rooms have moulded cornices. The left-hand ground-floor rear room was remodelled in the early 19th century with a moulded cornice, coving, and doors with reeded architraves. A cast-iron stove by W. Howe & Sons Ltd., Shrewsbury, sits in the rear wing, set within a chamfered segmental-arched fireplace.

An 18th-century dog-leg oak staircase in the rear wing rises to the attic with landings and an open string featuring cut brackets. It has barleysugar balusters—three to each tread of the lower flights and two to the upper flights—and a ramped moulded handrail wreathed with a quarter splay to an unfluted columnular foot newel. The upper flight has a columnular foot newel also. Panelling to the side of the lower flight remains in place.

The left-hand front bedroom contains 17th-century-type oak panelling and 18th-century raised and fielded panelling to the fireplace wall, complete with a dado rail and moulded cornice. Its fireplace features Delft-type tiled reveals, a Purbeck marble surround with raised and fielded panels and imposts, and a moulded wooden cornice, with doors flanking the fireplace. The right-hand front bedroom has dado panelling and a moulded cornice, with a fireplace displaying a marble slip, a lugged architrave, a pulvinated frieze, and a moulded cornice. Dressing rooms lie to the rear of each front bedroom; that to the left retains 17th-century-type panelling and a moulded cornice. The left-hand rear bedroom contains 17th-century-type oak panelling and a fireplace with a beaded marble surround, a cast-iron basket grate with Neo-Classical ornament, and raised and fielded panelling above. Throughout the house, 18th-century doors with 6 raised and fielded panels, L-hinges, panelled reveals, and moulded architraves are consistently employed.

Dinthill was the seat of the Griffiths family from the beginning of the 18th century until the early 19th century, when it passed to the Wingfields. The front sashes are probably late 18th-century replacements for early 18th-century boxed sashes, examples of which still survive in the rear wing. The outer ground-floor windows were also probably cut down at the same time. The hall is approached by a long tree-lined avenue from the north.