Hardwick Hall Including Balustraded Terraces Attached To Flanking Wings

Hardwick Hall including Balustraded Terraces Attached to Flanking Wings

A country house built circa 1720–30 for John Kynaston, possibly designed by Francis Smith of Warwick, with 19th-century additions and alterations.

The main building is constructed of red brick, painted to the left and right on the ground floor, with sandstone ashlar facing to the centre section. It has a hipped slate roof concealed by a high eaves parapet. The rectangular main range is flanked by semi-circular walls screening later additions and linked with projecting wings: a stable-block to the left and a service range to the right. The building rises three storeys.

The south front, formerly the entrance, displays 2:3:2 bays with rusticated stone quoin strips and Corinthian pilasters flanking a segmental-pedimented centre section. Floor bands and a moulded stone eaves cornice run across the facade. Glazing bar sashes with gauged heads, projecting keystones and brick aprons light the outer bays on the first and second floors. The centre section has windows in moulded stone architraves with projecting keystones and aprons. The central first-floor window is a dummy with husked garlands to its sides and a carved head replacing the keystone. The central segmental pediment bears the Kynaston family coat-of-arms with a superscribed motto reading "DEUS ES NOBIS SOL ET ENSIS" on a flowing ribbon. The ground floor contains 19th-century four-paned sashes; those to the outer bays have brick aprons, while those to the centre section extend to ground level, with the middle window positioned where a former doorway stood and flanked by Corinthian columns. Rectangular red brick stacks flank the pediment, each with two recessed panels to the sides and one to the front and rear, finished with moulded stone capping. Similar stacks stand behind. A single-storey polygonal projection at the right corner has a pediment to its front partly concealing a splayed slate roof, lit by three French casements in moulded stone architraves with projecting keystones and floor band above.

Attached to the right is a semi-circular wall with ramped stone coping featuring three blind round-headed arches divided by a continuous stone impost band, which links to the right wing. The right projecting wing is of red brick with a steep-pitched hipped graded slate roof and a prominent central stack to its open well. It measures 5 by 5 bays, slightly shorter to the south, and rises two storeys with an attic. A moulded stone plinth, eaves cornice and floor band run around the building, with alternating rusticated angle quoins at the corners. The west side displays five segmental-headed casements to the first floor and four taller casements to the ground floor, two on either side of a central entrance with panelled double doors and a segmental-headed overlight. The windows are multi-paned, using a mixture of cast-iron and wooden lights. Three two-light leaded dormers punctuate the roof slope—those to left and right have triangular pediments, while the centre has a segmental pediment. The south side has five segmental-headed window openings on each floor, taller to the ground floor. All are glazing bar sashes except the first from the left on the first floor and the left and first from the left on the ground floor, which are blind. The centre opening on the ground floor has an inserted doorway. The left projecting wing is almost identical to the right, except that it has boarded double doors, a wooden eaves cornice and a greater number of blind openings to the south side. A former stack with round-headed arches to its sides bears a clock to the east side, a weathervane and moulded stone capping. The left return of the main range comprises five bays with a pilaster buttress between the second and third windows from the left. The second-floor windows have aprons, and several blind windows are scattered throughout. The right return follows a similar arrangement, though the buttress continues upward to form an external lateral stock. Various 18th and 19th-century outbuildings and walls are attached to both sides of the house.

The north elevation displays 4:1:4 bays with rusticated quoin strips, cornice, parapet and floor bands carried around from the returns (the bands being stone on this side). Glazing bar sashes, eighteen-paned to the first floor, have gauged heads, projecting keystones and aprons. The centre windows sit in moulded stone architraves. The ground floor contains a 19th-century half-glazed door to the left with two dummy eighteen-paned glazing bar sashes to the right. An early 19th-century canted bay projection immediately to the left of centre has three six-paned sash windows and a dentilled cornice below the parapet. A sandstone ashlar conservatory of early 19th-century date is attached to the right with plain pilasters separating the windows and flanking a projecting entrance. Flanking single-storey three-bay projections at either end are also 19th-century: the left has fifteen-paned glazing bar sashes, while the right has a French casement to the left and two large blind windows painted in imitation to the right.

A 19th-century terrace to the south front between the projecting wings has a semi-circular bow to each end and a central flight of nine steps. It is furnished with square sandstone piers, those to the steps bearing urns, and cast-iron vase-shaped balusters.

The interior has been much altered in the 19th century and to a lesser extent in the 20th century, but it retains the original double-pile plan on the first and second floors. An original open-well staircase in the rear left corner of the main range rises to the second floor. Each tread has three twisted balusters; the moulded handrail is ramped to the newels, the open string is carved and a panelled dado runs throughout. A back staircase with turned balusters, probably also 18th-century, is present. The left ground-floor room has an 18th-century plaster ceiling and fluted Ionic pilasters flanking the entrance into the front centre room. The room behind also has a plaster ceiling with Corinthian pilasters, and plaster friezes and cornices extend to these rooms. The first and second-floor rooms, accessed from a full-length corridor, have panelled doors and window shutters. Occasional plain moulded stone fireplaces and Coalbrookdale cast-iron grates are present throughout. Floor boards are wide and boarded. The original kitchens and former wine cellars occupy the semi-basement.

The stable block (left projecting wing) contains several loose-boxes, those with ball finials to wooden posts probably dating to the 18th century. The staircases are also 18th-century; the flight from the first floor to the attic has turned balusters and a moulded handrail. When the terrace was built in the 19th century, it replaced a flight of steps leading up to the central entrance and blocked the semi-basement windows.

A former laundry was attached to the east in the mid-to-late 19th century. It is of red brick with a hipped slate roof and a wooden louvre to the right, and rises a single storey with three cast-iron latticed windows to the front. This is linked to a mid-19th-century game larder, also of red brick with a hipped slate roof, a ventilated louvre to the right and large wire-meshed windows. A 20th-century conservatory, not of special architectural interest and built on the site of a 19th-century conservatory, is attached to the left corner of the main range and is linked to a semi-circular wall on the left, very similar to that on the right.

The attribution to Francis Smith is based on stylistic grounds. A pair of 18th-century gate piers with contemporary wrought-iron gates, which originally lay to the west of the house, have now been removed.