Tedsmore Hall With Attached Balustrade, Archway And Outbuilding

Tedsmore Hall with Attached Balustrade, Archway and Outbuilding

A country house originally built in 1768 for Richard Bulkeley-Hatchett, remodelled in the mid-19th century for Thomas Bulkeley-Owen, with additions dated 1878. The building is constructed of red brick, refaced in grey sandstone ashlar to the front and right return, with red sandstone ashlar additions. The roof is slate. The style is Tudor Gothic.

The main building is two storeys with attics. The front elevation features three gables linked by a coped parapet terminating in octagonal corner piers with dome finials. The left and centre gables have chimney-like finials. Windows are 4-paned sashes, with one to the attic of the left and centre gables, two to the first floor of the left gable, and two paired sashes to the centre gable; all have dripstones. A canted bay window to the ground floor of the left gable has a quatrefoil parapet.

The porch to the right of centre has a stepped parapet and circular finials with incised lozenge-shaped decoration and fluted dome caps. A carving of a bull's head (representing the Bulkeley-Owen family coat of arms) decorates the centre. A 4-centred moulded arch with floriated label stops frames a Gothic panelled door. Infilled square-headed windows occupy the sides.

The external stack to the right gable displays two coats of arms to the centre and three attached and rebated octagonal shafts with moulded capping. The main range has integral end stacks with narrow octagonal shafts. A ridge stack to the right of centre has three attached and rebated shafts with moulded capping. Carvings of bull's heads appear on three lead rainwater heads.

The right return is in similar style and features a canted bay window and a gabled Gothic-style billiard room to the right. The 1878 addition to the left of the main range is two storeys with a gable to the right of centre. Three wooden mullioned and transomed windows appear on each floor, with a narrow rectangular sash window on the first floor to the left. A Gothic panelled door to the left has a rectangular overlight and a coat of arms above bearing the inscription "TVBO 1878" in raised lettering. Ridge stacks to the left and right of centre have tops rebuilt in 20th-century purple brick. Roughly contemporary brick service ranges are attached at right angles to the rear.

The attached balustrade on the right side of the porch features alternating quatrefoil and radiating wheel decoration with a slight projection to the centre on all three sides.

The attached archway serves the billiard room and has a 4-centred arch with dripstone and octagonal finials to the corners. A coat of arms depicting a bull's head and bird adorns the centre.

An attached gabled outbuilding to the right bears a datestone reading "1850".

Interior

The entrance hall is panelled with a stone-flagged floor. An oak staircase of circa 1768 features twisted balusters, a carved open string, and a wreathed ramped handrail with balusters grouped together as newels at the bottom. A panelled dado and later cast-iron lamp stands with iron-twist shafts stand at the bottom of the staircase. The side walls have elaborate plaster decoration.

A mid-19th-century wooden fireplace overmantel to the rear of the hall is carved with a battle scene reminiscent of Michelangelo's "Battle of the Centaurs". A contemporary vaulted plaster ceiling covers the same space. Similar ceilings appear in other rooms, including the front room of the right return. The room to the left of the entrance hall has a coffered ceiling and grapes carved into the cornice. Adam-style marble fireplaces and 19th-century panelled window shutters are found throughout the ground floor.