Hilton Hall

Hilton Hall

Country house built for Henry Vernon around 1720–30, possibly designed by Richard Trubshaw. The building underwent significant later alterations, including the addition of a second floor around 1830 and the extension of the east and west wings towards the rear. It is constructed in red brick with painted ashlar and plaster dressing, with a hipped slate roof and brick ridge stacks, executed in a provincial Baroque style.

The principal alignment runs east–west with the main front facing south, flanked by east and west wings aligned north–south. Rear extensions of the wings partially enclose a service courtyard. The building was reorientated when the original south entrance was blocked and a new entrance created on the east front.

The south front displays three storeys with reduced proportions to the second floor. It features a moulded plinth, rusticated giant corner pilasters capped by urns, and a dentilled and moulded cornice beneath the second floor windows. A recessed centre bay flanked by short wings contains a 3:5:3 bay arrangement. The windows are 12-pane glazing bar sashes with aprons and gauged brick heads; the florid keystones on the ground floor rise into the aprons of the windows above, while those on the first floor rise into the cornice. The centrepiece is an entrance bay with flanking Corinthian pilasters and a curved pediment complete with urns, garlands and an achievement of arms. The central two-leaf door features a rectangular overlight, engaged Corinthian columns, an entablature incorporating a raised key, and a Borominesque split pediment decorated with ears of corn. Both first and second floor windows display volutes and keystones with demonic faces; the first floor windows are garlanded with flowers and fruit.

The west front has a central break with quoins and a 1:3:1 bay arrangement. A single-storey, single-bay extension to the left features giant corner pilasters, a coped parapet and a large panelled brick ridge stack. The window is a tri-partite plate glass sash with keystones and a central achievement of arms partly set within a semi-circle projecting above the parapet.

The east front contains five bays. The central bay is plastered and painted with giant corner pilasters capped by urns. A large central porte cochère dating from around 1900 features semi-circular arches, a moulded plinth, giant pilasters, a dentilled cornice and urns. The two windows above have volutes, scrolls and carved keystones. A nineteenth-century extension is attached to the right.

The interior retains important early eighteenth-century features. The present entrance hall contains a colonnade of fluted Corinthian columns. Within the main body of the house is an open well staircase dating from around 1720–30, with open string, carved tread ends, corkscrew twist balusters, a fluted foot newel, ramped handrail and panelled dado. Above it is a plaster ceiling with a large oval panel surrounded by a border of trailing flowers. An early eighteenth-century dog-leg service staircase features a closed string, square panelled newels and turned balusters.

The dining room displays floor-to-ceiling oak panelling lit to the south by windows with panelled shutters and window seats within the recesses, flanked by console brackets. Two niches to the south have fluted pilasters, and a polished limestone recess to the west features a semi-circular arch and Corinthian pilasters, containing a wine cooler with a Vernon coat of arms in place of a keystone. A polished limestone fireplace to the north has a bolection moulded surround. A small front room to the west contains an early nineteenth-century marble fireplace and one wall of panelling.

The drawing room features oak panelling with Corinthian pilasters and dentilled cornice, panelled window shutters and a fireplace with bolection moulded surround.

On the first floor, a south-facing bedroom has an early nineteenth-century marble fireplace, an eighteenth-century plaster frieze with Greek key and acanthus leaf design, and an eighteenth-century plaster ceiling rose. To the north is another bedroom with a plaster frieze of acanthus leaf and flowers and a plaster ceiling rose.

The tentative attribution to Richard Trubshaw rests on similarities between Hilton Park and Trubshaw's now demolished Emral Hall in Flintshire, and on the fact that Trubshaw worked for Henry Vernon at Hilton in 1743. An early nineteenth-century sketch depicts Hilton Park as a two-storeyed building, confirming that the second floor is a later addition executed in identical style to the lower storeys.