Hales Hall

Hales Hall is a small country house built in 1712 for Mrs Grosvenor, granddaughter of Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England from 1670 to 1676. The house underwent late 19th-century additions and is constructed of red brick with rusticated stone quoins and plinth, floor band and surround. The hipped tile roof sits on a widely projecting moulded cornice broken over the quoins with an extravagant dentil course, with a leaded flat centre from which brick stacks rise.

The design shows fine Baroque style with a double-pile plan. The entrance front presents two storeys and an attic with five windows. These feature glazing bar sashes in moulded surrounds with raised keystones. The centre first-floor window is distinguished by drapes of foliage and moulded consoles with an apron, creating a visual blocking course for the central entrance. This entrance has a swan-necked pediment bearing a coat of arms, set on a frieze and pilastered surrounds running down to steps at plinth level. The entrance retains the keystone of the fenestration scheme, dropped over a rectangular overlight and double 19th-century three-panel doors. Three dormers set in the roof are all pedimented with ball finials, the centre being segmental. Lead downpipes with ornamental heads complete the frontage. A single-storey late 19th-century projecting billiard room of derivative style flanks the front to the left, partially obscuring the original service wing, which was short and set within the quoins. This service wing is lower than the main house, lacks fine detailing, and was remodelled in the mid-19th century, disrupting the symmetry of the remainder.

The garden front, at right angles to the entrance and facing south, is almost identical but with slightly narrower bays and a played-down entrance. Steps are now missing, and the cornice sits on a concave frieze and moulded surround without pilasters. The double four-panel doors may be original. The rear elevation has a further five-window front with segmental-head glazing bar sashes, many now blocked or partly blocked. A central stair window represents a later insertion with a round-arch glazing bar head; the heads of the original windows are visible above. A single-storey gabled extension extends from the centre of the rear.

The exterior's implication of a double-pile arrangement is not fully borne out in the interior due to alterations. All ground-floor rooms are fully panelled with eight-panel doors. The entrance hall features raised panels and an elliptical arch to the stair hall, with a fireplace having a stone bolection-moulded surround. The room to the left is also panelled with original panelling over the fireplace, though it now has a 19th-century surround. The library contains reset panelling with bookcases formed into window and door recesses, a moulded cornice, and a 20th-century tiled fireplace. The stair hall was formerly lit by two stair windows but now has a single late 18th-century window placed at a higher level. A dog-leg stair features a wide curtail and small scroll, a heavy moulded handrail with swan-neck ramping at angles and two barley sugar twist balusters to each tread, and an open string with carved consoles delicately picked out with foliage. The balustrade at the head of the stairs is also swan-necked at angles. The plaster ceiling has a deep oval wreath of foliage and moulded cornice, though it is not as well lit as it would have been with the original windows. An elliptical arch enters the centre, double-pile bedroom passage.

First-floor rooms have panelling to dado level and eight-panel doors. The bedroom over the library has a heavy-moulded cornice and bolection surround to the fireplace. The bedroom over the entrance hall has a similar cornice. The servants' staircase in the service wing is almost spiral with short straight runs of heavy handrail and closed string with turned balusters and heavy newels, possibly incorporating re-used 17th-century material. The attic storey is reached only by the service stairs. A central passage is retained with boarded and battened doors fitted with strap hinges of 17th-century type.