Stanwardine Hall

Stanwardine Hall is a manor house, now a farmhouse, located in Baschurch, Stanwardine-in-the-Wood. The building dates from 1588, when it was built for Robert Corbet, with substantial early 17th-century extensions made for his son Thomas Corbet, and further remodelling in 1713 for Sir John Wynne, followed by later additions and alterations.

The house is constructed of red brick in English bond for the 16th and 17th-century parts, with sandstone ashlar dressings. It is roofed with slate, graded to the rear with a weathercock to the front gable. The plan is T-shaped with two narrow projecting gabled wings to the main range, the right one forming a porch. A gabled cross-wing to the right is an early 17th-century addition, extended to the rear in 1713.

The building rises to two storeys and attics, with a semi-basement to the cross-wing. It features a chamfered sandstone plinth with angle quoins and a moulded cill band to the first floor of the main range. Stone mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights are used throughout, with one on each floor to the left gable and to either side of the porch, showing variety of mouldings. The cross-wing has plain chamfered mullioned and transomed windows on each floor to the gable and to the left return.

The left gabled wing displays dentilled decoration to its shaped gable with stone coping and ball finial. A carving of a raven—a rebus for the Corbet family—appears in a circular panel at the apex. The porch features carvings of griffins at the corners below the first-floor window, with the Corbet family coat-of-arms at the centre. The porch gable displays a carving of an elephant and castle at the apex, with elaborately moulded coping and ball finial. The porch itself has a plain pilastered outer doorway with moulded entablature and depressed Tudor arch. The inner moulded doorway with cambered head contains a massive plank door with fleur-de-lys pointed strap hinges.

Multiple chimney stacks are characteristic of the building. There is an integral lateral stack to the right side of the left gabled wing with two detached diagonal shafts, and a single stack to the right side of the porch. A prominent integral stack at the bottom of the roof slope to the far right of the main range has five attached and rebated shafts. An integral lateral stack to the left of the cross-wing has detached diagonal shafts and a shaped gable with a stepped external end stack at right-angles to the right, featuring small 19th-century casements in infilled segmental-headed openings to ground and first floors. A 19th-century service block is attached to the right.

The right return of the cross-wing has a full-height gable projecting to the right of centre with a variety of mullioned windows, infilled wooden cross windows with leaded lights, 19th-century casements, and one glazing bar sash window. Entrance is via a tall round-headed archway with boarded door in a narrow lean-to to the left of the projecting gable. A later two-storey lean-to is attached to the right. A red-brick ridge stack with two detached diagonal shafts is positioned to the gable.

The rear elevation features a wide projecting gabled range (probably dating to 1713) to the left with two 19th-century lean-tos attached. The main range has a full-height gabled projection housing the staircase to the left and a prominent external lateral stack to the right with angle quoins and three detached diagonal shafts. A flat-roofed projection attached to the right, containing a possible garderobe between, has a crenellated parapet partly concealing a timber-framed gable with cusped lozenge decoration. Mullioned and transomed windows appear throughout the rear, mostly infilled, including three-light windows on each floor of the flat-roofed projection to the right.

The interior contains exceptional features. The entrance hall, now divided into several rooms, preserves a late 16th-century plaster frieze decorated with pomegranates, trailing vines, acorns, shields and lion's heads, with a moulded cornice. A stone-flagged floor and infilled fireplace to the back wall have a pilastered surround and moulded overmantel. A small panelled room to the right of the porch contains a carved rectangular panel representing a raven, inscribed "1588/C/RI". Large rectangular panels to the walls appear to be early 18th-century but incorporate reused Jacobean panelling around an infilled fireplace.

A solid block oak staircase in the gabled projection to the rear rises in short straight flights, with a small spy-hatch into the entrance hall, and leads on the first floor to a great chamber directly above the entrance hall. This chamber has a moulded cross-beam ceiling and a fireplace with moulded stone surround and depressed lintel. A possible garderobe lies behind the fireplace. A small room on the first floor of the porch contains a stone fireplace with Tudor arch and an inserted Coalbrookdale grate. The room to the right of the porch has a moulded cross-beam ceiling and an 18th-century fireplace with moulded surround and mantel-shelf supported on carved consoles.

The cross-wing exhibits timber framing with square panels to the cross-walls. The front room contains early 17th-century square and rectangular oak panelling, some of which has been removed to Petton Church. A decorated late 18th-century cast-iron Coalbrookdale fireplace is present. The room to the rear on the right has deep-chamfered ceiling beams and a datestone above an infilled fireplace, reading "SRIW/KNT & BAT 1713", above the present kitchen. A short spiral staircase with solid block treads leads from the cross-wing down to ground floor into a passage with stone cambered archway, connecting to the kitchen, which was formerly open to the ceiling of the room above but now has chamfered ceiling beams and joists, presumably inserted after 1713. An earlier kitchen exists in the sub-basement of the cross-wing.

Panelled doors dating from the 16th to 18th centuries are found throughout the building, many with H-hinges. Inset panelled wall cupboards, many with butterfly hinges, are present. The first floor and attic have wide boarded floorboards. The attic features a multi-bay collar-beam roof with double purlins and straight windbraces.

An earlier house lay on a moated house platform, designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (County No. 267), approximately 100 metres to the south-west.