Prees Hall

Prees Hall is a country house, now derelict, dating back to the early 18th century. It incorporates elements of an earlier 17th-century building, with later additions and alterations made over time. The house is constructed of red brick, originally encapsulating a timber frame, and has a hipped plain tile roof to the main block (tile cladding is now missing). Flanking pavilions have hipped slate roofs, with ridge and end stacks. The main block is seven bays wide, connected by one-bay links to pavilion-like wings on either side. The front of the main block has seven windows, with the central three bays deeply recessed and set beneath a pilastered pediment. The windows are four-paned sashes with gauged heads, and a roundel is positioned within the pediment. A central six-panel door is set within a plain moulded doorcase. A wooden moulded eaves cornice runs around the pediment and features moulded wooden capitals to the pilasters flanking the central recess. The one-bay links to the left have a four-paned sash window to the ground floor and a glazing bar sash to the first floor, with a wooden floor band. The link to the right has blocked windows on both floors. The west pavilion has a stone floor band and a tripartite sash window. Above this is a blocked round-headed arch, which formerly created a Venetian window, and a Diocletian window to the semi-basement level. The east pavilion also retains traces of a Venetian window with an infilled arch above the floor band, and a later, 2-light, pedimented window was inserted below. The rear elevation has five windows to the main block, with two glazing bar sashes on the left and three four-paned sashes on the right of the first floor. There are three tall glazing bar sashes in pilastered frames to the left and two four-paned sashes to the right of the ground floor. The east pavilion has a prominent late 19th-century canted bay window on the ground floor and two infilled windows to the first floor. A contemporary stable block and a late 19th-century addition to the main block obscure the west pavilion. The interior was in dangerous condition in January 1986, but at that time a curved open-well staircase with stick balusters and a carved open string was noted to the right of the entrance. A ground-floor room in the east pavilion has late 19th-century panelling and a frieze. The centre of the main block incorporates at least three collar and tie beam roof trusses from the earlier 17th-century house, alongside substantial sections of close-studded walling from that period. Prees Hall is the birthplace of Rowland Hill, first Viscount Hill, a military commander under Wellington at Waterloo, in 1772.