Brand Hall

Brand Hall is a small country house with origins in the 17th century, substantially rebuilt around 1700, with further alterations in the mid-18th century and extensions in the early 19th century. Minor late 19th-century alterations were made at the rear and internally.

The building is constructed of red brick with grey sandstone ashlar dressings, with some timber framing at the rear infilled with plaster. It has plain tile roofs and hipped slate roofs over the early 19th-century wings. The plan is irregular L-shaped, with two storeys and an attic, two-storey wings, and a rear wing.

The front elevation is the principal façade. It features a chamfered plinth, chamfered quoins, a moulded stone cornice, and a coped parapet with short balustraded sections in front of a pair of hipped dormers with 2-light wooden casements. The parapeted gable ends have stone copings and integral brick end stacks with stone bands and caps. The centrepiece is dominated by a giant Tuscan order of pilasters without entasis, supporting short sections of entablature and a large 3-bay triangular pediment with carved Styche arms flanked by swags in the tympanum. The main facades are arranged in a 2:3:2 bay pattern with glazing bar sashes (bars removed from ground-floor windows), painted stone cills, gauged-brick heads, and raised triple keystones with moulded top edges. A central 6-panelled door (upper 4 raised and fielded with beading, lower 2 beaded flush) has a moulded wooden frame and lugged moulded stone architrave supporting frieze and cornice. Flanking early 19th-century set-back two-storey one-bay wings each have a dentil brick eaves cornice with bricks on the side and deep eaves, with glazing bar sashes (bars removed from ground-floor windows), painted stone cills, and gauged-brick heads. A two-bay right-hand return front has painted imitation sashes to the first floor and a 4-panelled door to the right.

The rear elevation features a central truncated timber-framed gabled wing, underbuilt in painted brick, with irregular framing of a former internal wall including angle braces and one blocked doorway with a triangular-headed arch. A rendered gable is set back to the right with a keyed lunette lighting the staircase. A late 19th-century wing to the left contains a service tower.

The south-west front of the rear wing dates from the 17th century, remodelled in the mid-18th century. It has a dentil brick eaves cornice and a parapeted gable end with stone coping and shaped kneelers. An integral brick end stack stands to the left and a brick ridge stack off-centre to the right. Three hipped dormers have 2-light wooden casements and moulded wooden eaves cornices. The fenestration comprises 4-pane sashes with gauged-brick heads at ground floor and painted stone cills; first-floor windows are arranged 1:5, with three to the left having blind boxes, and three ground-floor windows, the second and third from the left having boxes. A pair of doorways stands to the right: the left-hand one has a half-glazed door with plain lugged surround, moulded cornice and cornice; the right-hand one has a glazed door with a 18th-century lugged moulded architrave, frieze and cornice. The eaves are raised at the rear; a truncated former external brick stack with a pitched-roofed link to the main roof was later encased on each side, as evidenced by straight joints. An 18th-century first-floor sash window has a keyed gauged head.

The interior contains some 17th-century work, predominantly 18th-century elements, and some late 19th-century alterations. The ground-floor right-hand (dining) room dates from the early to mid-18th century and features a moulded plinth, dado rail, lugged plaster panels with acanthus ornament, reeded panels above doors, a frieze, and an enriched plaster cornice. The enriched plaster ceiling contains 6 panels. A 19th-century wooden fireplace in 17th-century style has a surround, architrave, frieze and cornice, and an 18th-century wooden overmantel consisting of a panel with flanking quarter columns in the angles, a cornice with egg and dart enrichment, and a triangular pediment.

The ground-floor left-hand (drawing) room was remodelled in the late 19th century and contains a cased beam. A 19th-century fireplace has ogee-stopped moulded surrounds, a pulvinated frieze with carved ornament, and a moulded cornice.

The ground-floor rear room in the rear wing contains a pair of mid-17th-century ovolo-moulded spine beams with ogee stops. A large mid-17th-century dressed grey sandstone open fireplace has chamfered reveals and a chamfered wooden lintel with mason's mitre to the corners. The entrance wall has a moulded plinth, dado rail, panelling with rounded top corners, and a ceiling with 6 panels and enriched plaster cornice. A pair of elliptical archways at the end of the hall each have moulded capitals, panelled soffits and spandrels with acanthus ornament. The left-hand arch leads to the rear wing, and the right-hand arch to the staircase.

The dog-leg staircase dates from circa 1700 and features a half-landing, closed string with pulvinated frieze, turned balusters, a moulded handrail, and square newels. The balustrade curves at the foot of the stairs, returning to the pier of the arch, and also returns as a landing balustrade. Panelling runs to the staircase and first floor. A lunette lighting the half-landing contains a shield in glass. A pair of elliptical arches is located at the head of the stairs, with a plaster ceiling rose above.

The left-hand first-floor rear room contains mid-17th-century fittings, including oak panelling with a fluted frieze, doors with 6 raised and fielded panels, and a fireplace with an overmantel consisting of 3 arches divided by pilasters. Cupboards have H-L hinges. 6-panelled doors with moulded architraves are found throughout the house.

The low floor-to-ceiling heights, particularly on the first floor of the front range, suggest that this too is a comprehensive rebuilding of a timber-framed range. Brand Hall was formerly the family home of the Davison family. The Styche arms in the pediment are probably a later addition, as they were granted to Samuel Davison in 1737. William Baker carried out minor internal alterations for Robert Davison in 1756. In the early 19th century, Brand Hall was owned by Purney Sillitoe, a friend of John Soane, and later by the Griffin family.

The house stands within a small wooded park.