Aston Hall

Aston Hall is a late 16th-century farmhouse with later additions and alterations. It is timber-framed with painted brick infill and a plain tile roof, arranged in an L-shape with a gable projecting to the right. The house is two storeys high and has a gable-lit attic. The timber framing primarily consists of close studding with a middle rail and curving tension braces. The gable of the cross-wing is jettied to the first floor and attic, with the ground floor underbuilt in brick. A moulded bressumer sits above the first-floor level, and this floor features three tiers of square panels with quatrefoil decoration flanking a central area of close studding, marking the former location of a 6-light mullioned and transomed window. The corners have twisted shafts, and carved brackets support the attic jetty. Decorative herringbone patterns are present on the right side and rear, flanking the location of a 4-light mullion window below the tie beam; painted decoration is above the tie beam. The windows are now largely late 19th and 20th-century casements. The hall range has two casements on the first floor, with one below to the left, while the cross-wing has a 20th-century bay window on the ground floor and a small window in the attic. A 19th-century mullioned and transomed window is located on the first floor of the left side of the building. The entrance is on the far right of the hall range, at an angle with the cross-wing, accessed via a 20th-century panelled door within a plain 19th-century doorcase. A red brick ridge stack with triple rebated shafts of star section is found where the cross-wing meets the hall range, and a painted brick external end stack is present to the left, with a late 20th-century rebuild using brown brick. 19th-century painted brick lean-tos have been added to the right side of the cross-wing, to the rear, and to the left gable end of the hall range. A timber-framed gabled dormer sits in the roof slope of the hall range at the rear. The interior features deep-chamfered ceiling beams throughout the ground and first-floor rooms, with dragon beams supporting the front room of the cross-wing’s first-floor jetty. One back room has 17th-century rectangular oak panelling and inset wall cupboards with H-hinges. A fragment of timber frame with a segmental-headed doorway is exposed on the first floor of the cross-wing, and an oak winder staircase (now replaced by a 19th-century staircase between the ground and first floors) continues to the attic. The cross-wing has a double-purlin roof with collar and tie beam trusses and straight windbraces, while the hall range has a similar roof with two wide bays.