Longner Hall And Short Section Of Forecourt Wall Adjoining To North West

Longner Hall and Short Section of Forecourt Wall Adjoining to North West

Country house. Built in 1803 by John Nash on the site of an earlier house. The building is constructed in red sandstone ashlar with grey sandstone ashlar dressings and details. The rear of the service wing is built in red brick and rendered brick. The roof is plain tile, spanning 2 bays over the main range.

The house follows an irregular L-plan with a main block containing 2 ranges, a gabled cross-wing to the west, and a service wing projecting at the north-west corner. It is designed in the Tudor Gothic Revival style and rises to 2 storeys. The exterior features a plinth, moulded cornice, and battlemented parapet with parapeted gables. These gables have diagonal corner pinnacles at their feet and pinnacles at their apices. Ashlar chimney stacks have octagonal shafts and moulded caps. Ridge stacks with paired shafts rise from the front ridge of the main range and the cross-wing stack in the valley of the main range. External lateral stacks to the north-east of the main range and south-west of the cross-wing have 3 and 2 shafts respectively.

Windows throughout are square-headed casements with 4-centred arched lights. Glazing bars feature Y-tracery, and windows are topped with hoodmoulds.

The south (garden) front features a gabled wing to the left with a 2-storey flat-topped canted bay. The 6-light windows have panelled tracery with Gothic panelled framing between them. Above is a 2-light louvred attic opening. The main range to the right is set back and has 2 first-floor 2-light casements and 3 pairs of ground-floor French casements with 4-centred arches within square heads and hoodmoulds. A grey sandstone loggia occupies the angle between the two. The loggia has 4 bays to the front and extends along the east front in 3 bays. Buttresses rise to pinnacles beneath a battlemented parapet. The 4-centred moulded arches are topped with later glazing in the front arches and one arch to the east. These contain 2 lights with Y-traceried glazing bars and panelled tracery above. The soffit is panelled with carved bosses. Brackets with pierced spandrels rest on corbels.

The right-hand return front has a first-floor 2-light casement above the loggia, with a 2-light louvred attic opening in the gable end above. A gabled range projects to the right, featuring a 2-storey flat-topped canted bay with panelled tracery to 6-light windows and Gothic panelled framing between.

The left-hand return front has 2 first-floor canted flat-topped oriel windows with 4-light casements and scalloped bases with carved bottom finials. Ground-floor French casements to the left have Y-tracery glazing bars, a 4-centred arch, and a 4-part overlight. An adjoining terrace marks the base of a former conservatory in the angle between the west front and the south front of the service wing. This conservatory was similar in style to the surviving loggia but was demolished in the 1930s.

The north (entrance) front presents an asymmetrical composition, projecting slightly to the right. A central 2-light casement sits to the left of a stack, with a large 3-light staircase window to the right. This staircase window has panelled tracery and chamfered reveals. A central porch with angle buttresses and a battlemented parapet with corner pinnacles projects forward. The porch has 4-centred arches to the front and left with trefoil-panelled spandrels. Inside the porch is a quadripartite lierne vault with a carved boss. The square-headed entrance has a 4-centred arched surround, flanked by a pair of 2-panelled doors with 5-light panelled traceried overlights. A mounting block adjoining to the right is dated 1676. A short section of low forecourt wall adjoins the porch to the left, featuring a plinth, Gothic balustrading, coping, and a panelled square end pier.

The service wing follows an L-plan, returned to the north-west. Ridge stacks off-centre to left and right have paired octagonal shafts. An integral brick stack occupies the right-hand corner, with 2 brick ridge stacks to the returned wing. The wing is 8 bays long with 2-light casements throughout. A corbelled first-floor square oriel window appears in the fourth bay from the right. A pinnacled gable over the right-hand bay rises above a 2-storey canted bay.

A projecting clock tower rises over the porch in the third bay from the right. The tower has 3 stages. At the base is a moulded plinth with side buttresses to the first stage. A string separates the first and second stages. Panelled clasping buttresses and a battlemented parapet rise to the third stage. An octagonal belfry tops the structure, featuring pinnacled buttresses, ogee-headed lancet openings with finialled-hoodmoulds, a battlemented parapet, and an ogee lead dome with weathervane. The second stage has louvred openings with paired cusped lights, chamfered reveals, and hoodmoulds with carved stops. A lozenge-shaped clock faces forward. Small rectangular first-stage windows sit high up in the sides with returned hoodmoulds. A chamfered-arched entrance has a hoodmould with carved shields as stops.

The rear of the service range includes a short stub of wall to a now-demolished conservatory projecting at the south-west corner. This stub has a triple-shafted stack. A 2-storey canted bay sits to the south-west, adjoined by a projecting short gabled wing. A pent-roofed loggia in the angle of the return wing to the north-east features circular and octagonal sandstone columns.

Interior: The vaulted entrance lobby leads to the Staircase Hall. The corridor features 5 plaster fan vaults with pendants and a fireplace with a quatrefoil surround and shields. The staircase rises to a landing in one flight and returns in 2 flights with a wreathed wrought iron balustrade and an apsidal end with ribs rising to a Gothic frieze. The staircase window contains glass by David Evans depicting 3 figures, one of them Edward Burton who died at Longner in 1558 and whose memorial is set in the grounds. A ground-floor fan vault forms a semi-circular balcony to the first-floor vaulted corridor.

The Library has a ceiling with a central shallow quadripartite fan vault with pendants and a vaulted narrow encompassing band. A 4-centred arched fireplace and Gothic pelmets are present.

The Drawing Room features a Gothic frieze.

The Dining Room dates to circa 1803. It has a Gothic frieze, colour scheme, stencilling, and a Neo-Jacobean chimney-piece with a flat-panelled ceiling that are probably alterations by E. Swinfen Harris from 1884. A possibly re-used 3-flight square-well back staircase has turned balusters, a columnar newel, and a ramped moulded handrail.

Gothic-panelled doors and friezes appear throughout the house. Some Gothic furniture, especially that in the Dining Room, was probably designed for the house circa 1803.

Nash worked with Humphry Repton at Longner. Repton landscaped the grounds from 1803 to 1804, and his Red Book for the work is kept in the house. Longner is the only complete large surviving example of Nash's Tudor style.