Preston Montford Hall

Preston Montford Hall is a small country house, now used as a field study centre, dating from circa 1700 with alterations and additions made in the early 19th century. It is constructed of painted brick with painted sandstone dressings, under a hipped slate roof. The building is square in plan, with two storeys and an attic over a basement.

The south front has a plinth with a moulded stone top, chamfered stone quoins, a plat band, and a moulded wooden eaves cornice with modillion details. There are brick ridge stacks, one off-centre to the right, a brick stack on the left-hand return ridge, a brick ridge stack to the rear ridge, and a 20th-century stack off the west ridge. Three small-paned dormers with triangular pediments are visible. The fenestration is arranged in a 2:1:2 bay layout, featuring boxed glazing bar sashes with painted stone cills and gauged-brick heads. The entrance was altered in the early 19th century, consisting of a tripartite glazing bar sash framed by unfluted pilasters supporting an entablature with a triangular pediment. Early 18th-century lead downpipes are present, secured with fixing straps and incorporating cast rainwater heads decorated with a central monogram, acanthus ornament, and moulded tops.

The right-hand return front features a central, pedimented dormer and three bays with some blind windows imitating glazing bar sashes. The ground floor has a blank central section. An early 19th-century six-panelled door is set within a Greek Doric stone porch with unfluted columns and antae, a frieze, cornice and blocking course. The left-hand return front also has three bays with some blind windows.

The rear of the house is two bays wide to the north-east, with a painted-brick service wing extending from the rear, featuring a hipped slate roof, brick stacks, gabled dormers, and a dentil brick eaves cornice. A square wooden bellcote with a pyramidal cap and weathervane is also visible. Two bays to the east showcase boxed glazing bar sashes with painted stone cills.

Internally, the rooms were altered in the early 19th century and feature ornament from that period. A blocked, three-bay Doric screen stands between the former entrance hall and a room on the left, with plain antae, an entablature with a panelled soffit, and anthemion and palmette ornament to the frieze, as well as a moulded cornice. Ground-floor front rooms have early 19th-century plaster cornices and soffits. The present entrance hall at the rear contains raised and fielded, and bolection-moulded panelling (likely resited) with a moulded dado rail and moulding. Windows have panelled internal shutters. A square-well oak staircase dating from circa 1700 rises to the attic, featuring a panelled closed string, drop balusters, a moulded handrail, panelled newel posts with moulded caps and turned pendants, and raised and fielded dado panelling with a moulded rail. Early 19th-century panelled doors are set within panelled architraves.