Mawley Hall

Mawley Hall is a country house built around 1730 and restored in 1962. It is attributed to either Francis Smith of Warwick or Thomas White of Worcester.

The building is constructed of red brick with sandstone ashlar dressings. Its exterior displays Giant Roman Doric order pilasters at the corners and at the angles of a three-bay centre, supporting a large moulded and dentilled cornice below the second floor, continued above by short panelled pilasters supporting a smaller parapet cornice. The windows have gauged brick lintels with raised keystones supporting a shelf and carved apron below the sills. The doors feature broken segmental pediments advanced over pilasters or demi-columns. Large urns are set on the parapet. The roof is hipped slate with four large integral panelled brick ridge chimneys.

The plan is rectangular, measuring nine bays by seven. The building rises three storeys with a basement.

The north-east front presents a nine-window range of 9/6 sashes with 6/3 windows at second-floor level. The central three bays are slightly advanced under a steep pediment with tall statues on either side and an urn at the apex. The tympanum now contains plain brickwork replacing the original carved coat of arms. The central sashes have rosette surrounds, with the first-floor surround flanked by elongated volutes. The central door has a segmental pediment with broken bed and apex, an enriched frieze, and is supported by Corinthian demi-columns flanking a ten-panelled door.

The south-east front comprises a seven-window range of 9/6 sashes with 6/3 windows at second floor, with central three bays advanced. The central door has a segmental pediment with modillions and broken apex with plain frieze, supported by Ionic pilasters. Four pairs of windows are set under sashes in the ashlar basement wall.

The south-west front has a nine-window range of 9/6 sashes with 6/3 windows at second floor, with central three bays recessed. The central door features a broken apex pediment with Doric entablature and pilasters, approached by a double flight of balustraded steps with enriched wrought iron. Basement windows match those of the south-east side.

The north-west front presents a seven-window range of 9/6 sashes with 6/3 windows at second floor and 6/6 windows in the basement to the right-hand side. The central three bays align with the flanking bays. The central doorcase is at basement level with a simple quoined ashlar surround and simple entablature with a projecting keyblock. A later projecting brick flat-roofed extension rising to second-floor level covers the left side of the central bay, featuring mostly paired 6/6 sashes. The left flanking bays are covered to first-floor level by a projecting brick flat-roofed extension with twentieth-century garage doors.

The interior is generally very richly decorated in early eighteenth-century style and mostly intact. The entrance hall and staircase hall are divided by an internal colonnade of three rusticated arches, with highly decorative Italianate plasterwork throughout depicting Imperial busts and classical mythology, reputed to be by one of the Italian stuccodores—Artari, Bagutti or Vassalli. Ornate doorcases with broken apex segmental pediments feature inset busts and ten-panelled doors with raised and fielded panels, flanked by attached Baroque-style Corinthian columns. The entrance hall contains a large chimneypiece with a richly carved overmantel depicting military emblems and trophies.

The staircase and first-floor balustrade encircle a large open well. The staircase features an undulating mahogany handrail beginning with a tail on the balustrade end and terminating at the lower newel with a snake's head holding a sphere in its jaws. Alternate pattern carved balusters are set on a crested string decorated with relief carvings of symbols of the arts and various pursuits, set between festoons.

The inlaid drawing room has an octagonal pattern marquetry floor with tarsia inlay using exotic timber and brass to decorate pilasters, dado and moulded cornice. Doorcases have segmental pediments with apexes broken by scrolls. A marble carved chimneypiece features a mantel shelf supported on termini.

The dining room was redecorated in the Adam style around 1770, with a moulded cornice, attached Corinthian columns framing a large curved recess with moulded frieze, and a carved white marble fireplace with carved keyblock.

The drawing room features a modillioned carved cornice, Ionic pilasters and columns, complete large raised and fielded panelling, carved shouldered architraves, and an overmantel with festoons, all in carved oak. A marble fireplace displays a richly carved frieze and flanking termini. The ceiling contains a trompe-l'oeil painting by Graham Rust.

The roof structure consists of main bordering pitches with two infilling inner pitches. The main structure employs king-post trusses with subsidiary king-post trusses set above each main truss principal rafter, tenoned purlins and a tenoned ridge. The centre is now over-roofed with a twentieth-century flat lead roof.