Peplow Hall

Peplow Hall is a country house dating from 1725, enlarged in 1887 for Sir Francis Stanier and substantially altered between around 1932 and 1939. It is built of red brick with a roof concealed behind a parapet.

The main body of the house comprises six bays by seven bays with additions to the north and stands two storeys high. The south-west entrance front features corner pilaster strips, a plat band and moulded brick cornice, with a panelled parapet topped by stone coping that is raised over the central three bays. A central dated stone sundial with a broken triangular pediment sits in the parapet. Four 19th-century panelled brick ridge stacks with dentil brick caps rise above the roofline. The fenestration on this front consists of 2:3:2 bays with a central break and a 20th-century wing to the left; the windows are glazing bar sashes with exposed boxes, stone cills and gauged brick heads. The central three first-floor windows and those to the 20th-century wing have shaped brick heads and raised brick keystones. The central door features six raised and fielded panels and is set within a stone doorcase of around 1932, which has a moulded architrave, panelled pilaster strips and a large shell hood supported on shaped brackets. A pair of 19th-century downpipes with large rainwater heads, one bearing a crest and the other the initials "FS", flank the doorway. The 20th-century wing has one-bay returns and adjoins 18th and 19th-century wings to the left, these displaying 4:3 bays of segmental-headed glazing bar sashes beneath a dentil brick eaves cornice and panelled parapet. Three 19th-century brick stacks are visible here.

The right-hand return front presents 5:1 bays with a plat band interrupted beneath the windows, and a parapet raised over the central bay containing a central dated stone sundial with a scrolled pediment. A late 20th-century half-glazed door in the third bay from the left is accompanied by a late 20th-century conservatory.

The north-east garden front is arranged as 1:5:1 bays with narrow third and fifth bays and flanking wings. A plat band is stepped up beneath the first-floor sashes, and a dated stone sundial with a broken triangular pediment sits centrally in the parapet. The central first-floor sash has a shaped gauged head and raised brick keystones. A central 20th-century half-glazed door with a latticed rectangular overlight and lugged stone architrave with a raised centre opens onto the garden. The right-hand wing has a half-glazed 20th-century door with a latticed overlight and lugged architrave in its return. An attic was added to the right-hand wing around 1932 featuring a keyed gauged-brick oculus to the front. A rainwater head here bears the initials "FSB". A circa 1932 wing to the right comprises 3:1 bays.

The interior has been extensively altered in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries but retains numerous 18th-century fixtures and fittings. The 18th-century dog-leg staircase has been resited and features a landing with an open string bearing inlaid tread ends, nosings with bead and reel ornament and carved scrolled brackets (the carving section continuing as the soffit). Three balusters per tread in iron twist, plain and barleysugar patterns support a ramped moulded handrail. The staircase terminates in a curtail with a fluted columnar newel, matched by a fluted columnar newel to the half-landing. The landing balustrade dates to circa 1932. Bolection-moulded dado panelling lines the walls.

The drawing room retains 18th-century fixtures including bolection-moulded panelling with dado rail and cornice. The wooden fireplace features a carved lugged architrave, a frieze with carved scrollwork and fruit drops and amphora, and a carved cornice. Flanking shell niches contain husk-drops and carved scrollwork with foliage in the spandrels; the shaped shelves are enriched with bead and reel ornament and panels below carry carved drops.

The left-hand ground-floor room contains an 18th-century fireplace with a bolection-moulded stone architrave and wooden surround of tapered pilasters with carved fruit drops, a frieze with cornucopia and a carved cornice. The right-hand front room retains 18th-century bolection-moulded panelling with dado rail and cornice, with panelled shutters throughout the house.

Work undertaken in the 1930s involved the demolition of a large late 19th-century south-east wing (documented in contemporary photographs), the reworking of the north-east front and the addition of a 2-bay extension to the south-west front. Drawings of work dated 1877 and photographs from the 1932-1939 alterations survive with the owner. Richard Norman Shaw designed the Chapel of the Epiphany for Francis Stanier and may have been responsible for work at the house itself.

The house stands in landscaped grounds with a lake to the east and the Chapel of the Epiphany to the west.