Barlaston Hall

Barlaston Hall is a country house built between 1756 and 1758, and restored circa 1990. It is attributed to Sir Robert Taylor. The house is constructed of brick with stone dressings, and a rusticated stone basement. It has three storeys and a basement. The windows are glazing bar sashes, with an unusual octagonal glazing pattern.

The entrance facade has a five-window front, with the central three bays projecting forward and surmounted by a pediment. Large, round-headed niches are located in the return sides of the projection. The outer windows are set within moulded stone architraves featuring a pulvinated frieze, pediment, and baluster panel. A single doorway features Tuscan columns, a triglyph frieze, and a pediment, all within Gibbs surrounds.

The garden elevation has a large, tiered, convex bay extending over three storeys. The north and south elevations feature two-storey canted bays with balustraded parapets. The south elevation also includes large Venetian windows to the second storey. The building has a moulded stone eaves cornice and ball-head finials to the pediment. Plastered stacks and slates top the building.

The interior entrance hall is in the Doric style, featuring a dentilated cornice. The central entrance doorway has a pilastered and pedimented surround, a plain stone fire surround, and six doors with shouldered surrounds. Each door has six octagonal panels, with a projecting panel above and a recessed circular panel above that. The dining room to the right has a rich dentilated plaster cornice, and Rococo plaster frames on each end wall. The east wall contains a painting of Thomas Mills and his family, attributed to Henry Pickering. The fire surround was destroyed, but the Rococo overmantel remains largely intact with flanking panels containing plaster festoons. The curved bay window also has Rococo plaster decoration and pedimented doorways.

The saloon has a deep cornice with an elaborate plaster frieze, a late nineteenth-century fireplace, and a fragmentary roundel above. The library has a dado rail, picture rail, a plain moulded cornice, and round-headed book recesses on three walls. The original fireplace is set in an arched recess with plaster festoons flanked by bookcases and doors, topped by projecting square panels and roundels.

The central staircase hall has a rebuilt wooden stair with a Chinese Chippendale baluster. Three round arches on the upper floor open on three sides to form a landing. A moulded plaster ceiling with two brackets from each face rises to a circular skylight. The upper floors were rebuilt in an eighteenth-century style. Barlaston Hall was restored after it had fallen into serious disrepair.