Owlbury Hall

Owlbury Hall

A house thought to date primarily from the 16th and 17th centuries, with 18th-century alterations and late-20th-century restoration. The building is of timber frame and brick construction with a slate roof.

The house is oriented roughly north-south with a central axial range and cross ranges at each end. The entrance front faces west, with a timber-framed section at the northern end and brick and rendered work at the southern end. The timber framing is primarily of close studding. The present main entrance is through a modern door in a recessed bay, with a large reconstructed dormer window at roof level above featuring herringbone-pattern timber. Adjacent to this, the northern wing has a large window at each floor beneath a hipped slate roof.

The southern section displays an exposed truss in the gable end where it abuts the northern section. Windows at each floor flank the main entrance, followed by what is likely the former main entrance in a projecting porch, now rendered with a catslide roof. Adjacent to this is a substantial chimney stack with brick upper section. The southern elevation has a pair of windows at each floor beneath a hipped roof; the window openings are tall where they would originally have had sashes, now replaced with modern windows.

The rear elevation facing east has two large projecting gables with exposed timber framing. The southern gable has a rendered ground floor with close-studded framing above and an external stack. The right-hand return of this gable is exposed brick with a historic three-light window at eaves level. The central section between the gables is of square panel framing, as is the projecting northern gable, which has central windows at ground, first, and attic storeys.

The northern elevation displays exposed square panel framing with a large external chimney stack at its centre.

Internally, the main entrance opens into a hall with exposed timber framing, with much exposed timber throughout the building. Beams are mostly chamfered, many with stops of varying styles. A modern stair occupies the hall. At the southern end, the former cross passage survives with a screen of close-studded timbers and two openings into the hall. The eastern end of the passage has a door with a Tudor-arched opening. Beyond the passage is a large room in the 18th-century rebuilt wing, featuring a plaster ceiling divided into panels by exposed chamfered beams. This room has an exposed historic window, now blocked, with a thick central mullion and two-lights to either side.

The northern room beyond the hall is a large space with a square-panelled ceiling of thick beams with deep chamfers. There are no stops to the ends of these ceiling beams, indicating the rebuilding of the external walls. Exposed timber continues throughout the first floor, with similarly deep chamfered beams in the northern room. Behind the modern dormer over the main entrance, surviving evidence indicates a previous structure at this location with possible jettying. Between this bay and the southern block there is a level change with steps between, and an unusual brick-arched doorway.

The attic level above forms a large roofspace with much exposed timber and a large number of taper burn marks on the timbers. Evidence at the southern end shows the truncation of a former truss to form the existing hipped roof.

Beneath the northern end of the house is a cellar with stone, brick, and cement-rendered walls and a thick timber structure of chamfered and stopped beams supporting the floor above.