Oakley Hall and pair of sphinxes framing east entrance

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 29/04/2020

SJ 73 NW LOGGERHEADS C.P OAKLEY MUCKLESTONE 8/123 Oakley Hall and pair of sphinxes framing east entrance

2/12/52 GV II*

Country house. 1710 (datestone on north wall) with later additions and alterations. Built for Sir John Chetwode. Red brick on sandstone plinth with ashlar and rusticated dressings; slate roofs, orange-brown brick ridge stacks re-built in late C20. Two storeys over cellars; flat stone string course, moulded eaves cornice and parapet. East front: is entrance front; symmetrical of eleven bays arranged a-b-c-b-a; the two end bays projecting slightly; rusticated quoin strips to corners and ashlar-faced centre flanked by two giant pilasters with Corinthian capitals; windows all glazing bar sashes in moulded stone surrounds with projecting keystones, mid-window also with grotesque lion's head above and swags of garlands and bottom volutes to sides; central doorway with segmental pediment on console brackets, six-panel double door with delicately wreathed metal fanlight; balustrade above parapet with plain early C20 pediment, decorated with festooned garlands, to centre (the original pediment was curvaceous with shaped finials). North front: in seven bays with three-window bow (early C19) to centre of ground floor. West front: three:three:three bays; central section slightly projecting and with a full-height three-window bow under conical roof (note the turned balusters below the first floor windows and the console brackets to the central one). Plain south front in four bays with a four-bay colonnaded verandah (reconstructed as a conservatory in late C20) attached to south-west corner. Interior: considerably altered in early 1970's, the chief items of interest are now the early C18 staircase with its turned balusters and a plastered ceiling and frieze (c.1800) to the ground floor of the two-storied bow on west side; this room also has a good fireplace (again of c.1800) and shutters to the windows, as have those to the single-storied bow on north. Two sphinx-like figures with female heads and cast iron lamps behind flank the main entrance. A ha-ha with drystone wall approximately 1.2m high lies about 60m to the east and lies within the curtilage.

Listing NGR: SJ7013436943