Ford Hall

Ford Hall is a house dating to 1729, built for George Calcott, with alterations and additions made around 1800 and in the late 19th century. The exterior is painted brick laid on a painted dressed sandstone plinth, with a hipped plain tile roof. It is two storeys and has an attic. The south-west front has a chamfered plinth, a moulded wooden eaves cornice, a central 19th-century gabled dormer with a wooden finial, a four-pane sash window with a bracketed sill, and a 19th-century ridge cresting. Brick ridge stacks are positioned off-centre to the right and left. There are three bays with segmental-headed late 18th-century glazing bar sashes, sixteen panes in the outer bays. The central entrance features a six-panelled door with glazed upper panels, flush-panelled reveals and soffit, moulded imposts, and a chamfered architrave. A late 19th-century brick and timber gabled porch with glazed upper parts is also present. The left-hand return front has two late 19th-century gabled dormers and two ground-floor canted bays; the right-hand return front features two dormers, a datestone above the keystone, and two ground-floor canted bays. A circa 1800 one-storey kitchen wing is located at the rear, distinguished by a dentil brick eaves cornice, a parapeted gable end, and an integral brick end stack. A 20th-century garage block adjoins the rear. A circa 1800 doorcase is documented to have existed at the rear, removed from the front when the late 19th-century porch was added, although it was not located during a survey conducted in July 1985.

The interior includes an early 18th-century three-flight rectangular-well staircase with a closed string, turned balusters, a moulded handrail, and square newel posts. A ground-floor rear room on the left side has a late 18th-century marble chimney-piece with a moulded surround, tall inlaid scrolls supporting a frieze with an amphora in the central panel, triglyphs and guttae above the scrolls, and a cornice with egg and dart enrichment. Early 18th-century six-panelled doors have panelled reveals and moulded architraves; later 18th- or early 19th-century panelled doors have panelled reveals and reeded architraves with paterae at the corners. It is reported (but not confirmed during the 1985 survey) that one ground-floor room has moulded ceiling beams and cornice. Local historical records suggest the house may have originally been U-shaped and that the south front may have had five bays. A house is known to have been on the site as early as 1665.