Berrington Hall

Berrington Hall is a red brick rectory, now a small country house, dating from 1805. It was designed by Joseph Bromfield of Shrewsbury for the Hon. and Rev. Richard Noel Hill. The building has grey sandstone ashlar dressings and a hipped slate roof. It is organised with a central five-bay block, with a set-back one-bay service pavilion to the left and a one-bay link block between, and a set-back one-bay block to the right, possibly a link to a former right-hand pavilion. The house is two and three storeys high, with a stone plinth, a decorative frieze, dentil eaves cornice, and four brick ridge stacks. The windows are glazing bar sashes with gauged brick heads, with some painted imitation sashes in the right-hand bays. A pair of half-glazed flush-panelled doors are set beneath an ashlar porch with paired Tuscan columns, an architrave, frieze, and a triangular pediment. The return fronts have similar detailing, with painted imitation sashes and French casements. The rear elevation features three storeys and four bays. The left-hand pavilion has a stone frieze, brick pilaster strips to the gable end with stone coping, a central brick ridge stack, a pair of half-glazed doors with a blind box over, and a four-bay return front. The right-hand link block has paired brick pilaster strips to a triangular-pedimented gable end. The interior remains largely unaltered, with moulded cornices, enriched plaster soffits, six-panelled doors, reeded architraves with corner paterae, reeded fireplace surrounds, and panelled window shutters throughout. A three-flight square-well staircase features an open string, a wrought iron balustrade with anthemion ornament, a wreathed handrail, a curtail with columnular newels and a domed top light. A back staircase is also present. Joseph Bromfield was a plasterer by trade. The house, along with a service wing and stable block, enclose three sides of a service courtyard to the east. It is thought that a north pavilion was not built or initially intended, based on the matching treatment of the link and south pavilions. This is a well-preserved example of an ambitious early 19th century rectory.