Whitmore Hall

Whitmore Hall is a country house of Grade I importance. The building represents a substantial remodelling of a 16th-century house undertaken in 1676, with significant later additions and alterations chiefly dating from the late 19th century.

The original timber-frame structure is now completely encased in red brick laid in English bond, with an ashlar plinth, dressings and angle quoins. The roof is plain tiled and hipped. The original house was probably planned as an 'E'-shape but now forms a rectangular block of 9 by 5 bays, with later additions set at right angles to the rear on the left side. The architectural style is plain classical with details in the Artisan Mannerist manner.

The south front displays 2 storeys over cellars. An ashlar string course runs across the elevation, topped by a moulded eaves cornice with brick and open stone balustrade. The 9 bays are lit by glazing bar sash windows with gauged heads and projecting keystones, except for the windows in the slightly projecting second, centre and eighth bays, which have moulded stone surrounds and carved classical heads replacing the keystones. An ashlar cill band runs along both ground and first floors, interrupted by dropped window cills. Two prominent rectangular brick stacks rise through the roof slope, each with blind round-headed arches on opposite sides, ashlar keystones, imposts and capping.

The central feature is a porch beneath an elaborately carved and decorated broken scroll-pedimented south gable bearing the date 1676 and the inscription "DEVANT SI JE PUIS". This gable is in fact a reconstruction of 1842; the original gable was positioned over what is now the inner doorway but was moved forward when the present porch was constructed. The porch contains an internal frieze of naval trophies, probably by James Trubshaw, and has elaborate gables on its east and west sides. The double 6-panel south door is largely of the late 17th century but has been widened to fit the larger 19th-century entrance.

The west side comprises bays with 3 windows on the first floor blocked and 2 blind vertical oval panels aligned with the string course. A dormer-lit attic occupies the upper level. Late 19th-century additions to the left have truncated the remainder of this range.

The east front is arranged in 5 bays with glazing bar sash windows throughout. On the ground floor, the windows to the 2 leftmost bays are blind. A late 19th-century glazed door occupies the central bay, and a canted bay window spans the fourth and fifth bays of the ground floor.

The plain north front also features a prominent 3-window canted bay of late 19th-century date to the left, with altered fenestration to the right and first floor (glazing bar sashes with horns). This elevation also has a dormer-lit attic.

Extensive late Victorian additions extend at right angles to the rear, built following a fire around 1880 that destroyed the back of the house. These additions are of red brick, 2 and 3 storeys in height with attics lit by pedimented half-dormers. Windows are mostly glazing bar sashes with horns. A small service block, formerly housing electricity apparatus and converted to domestic accommodation in the mid-20th century, is attached.

The interior preserves an elegant staircase with turned balusters and an entrance hall with 4 Corinthian pillars forming a screen at the far end, probably designed by William Baker, who carried out alterations for Edward Mainwaring around 1756. Rooms on the east side were knocked into one space during the late 19th century; this combined room features a fine plaster ceiling of that period.