Hartshill Grange

HARTSHILL GRANGE

A house of early 16th-century origin with later extensions and additions spanning the 16th to 18th centuries. The building is timber-framed, mostly constructed with close studding and rendered infill, with some sections rebuilt in rendered brick. It has old plain-tile roofs and features a complex arrangement of three parallel ranges, rising to two storeys and an attic.

The main front comprises a three-window range. A jettied porch of one storey and attic projects forward, with shaped brackets and an encased original door beneath a late 20th-century plank replacement. The first floor displays tension braces and a three-light casement window. To the right is a 17th-century addition, flush with the porch, showing exposed small framing. This section has a rendered gabled first floor with a two-light casement set under a segmental arch. The main range features a large full-width wood mullioned window (probably 20th-century) with central transom, above which is a four-light casement. A small rendered projecting wing, attached to the left corner, has a string course and narrow external stack; fragments of timber framing survive on its right return.

The left return side displays twin gable ranges, the left being rendered with a 20th-century glazed door, and the adjoining range having a cellar door. A very large external stack rises to the right, with sandstone plinth, quoins, offsets, brick dog-tooth cornice and shaft. The left return shows a fire window. A small gabled wing to the right has a canted bay with 20th-century casement to the ground floor. The right return side exposes a corner post and a three-light casement.

To the rear, a rendered two-bay range of two storeys and attic is distinguished by twin gables with brick-coped gable parapets and connecting parapets. An internal stack with diagonally-set square shafts and cornices stands between the gables. A painted rainwater head bears the inscription "NNS 1712" in relief. The ground floor has large windows (probably 20th-century) with central transoms—four lights to the left and six to the right; upper floors have three-light casements. A jettied two-storey range on the right is of small framing, with three-light casements to the ground floor and two-light casements above.

Large external, internal and other brick stacks are distributed throughout the structure. The house also shows evidence of later alterations, with documented changes dated to 1712 and a small projecting wing likely added in the early 18th century.

The interior is substantial. The porch opens into a full-width hall with a possibly inserted floor. A wide open fireplace features chamfered stone jambs and a large bressumer, with an ogee-stop-chamfered ceiling beam above. The adjoining room contains a chamfered stone shallow Tudor-arched fireplace with moulded spandrels, and 16th or 17th-century panelling. A rear room retains a partly moulded ceiling beam. A 16th or 17th-century dog-leg staircase is present. Upper floors display exposed posts and framing with chamfered beams, wide floor boards, and queen strut through-purlin roofs. Several 16th or 17th-century eight-panelled doors survive throughout.

Hartshill Grange stands on land that once belonged to Merevale Abbey and was granted to Sir William Devereux in 1540. It subsequently became the property of the Earl of Essex. The Quaker philanthropist Nathaniel Newton lived here in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and George Fox visited the house. It was also home to the Quaker Benjamin Bartlett, author of "The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Manceter" (1791).