Farnborough Hall

Farnborough Hall is a country house of the late 17th century, originally built for William Holbech, and substantially remodelled around 1745–1750 for William Holbech the younger, probably by the architect Sanderson Miller. The plasterwork was executed by William Perritt. The building is constructed in ironstone ashlar with grey limestone ashlar dressings and features a slate mansard hipped roof with ashlar ridge stacks. It is arranged in a U-plan.

The remodelled exterior is in the Palladian style. The main block is of two storeys and attic, with a plan of 2–5–2 bays. The north and west fronts have a splayed plinth, string course, quoins and modillion cornice. A high parapet with balustrading of around 1750 runs across each bay throughout. The centre is recessed, with wings projecting one bay forward. The principal entrance is a half-glazed panelled door beneath a pedimented Roman Doric doorcase of half-columns and pilasters; the metopes are decorated with bucrania and rosettes. Basement windows are chamfered 2-light mullioned openings, mostly blocked. Upper windows are sashes in moulded architraves with consoles and cornice. The inner sides of the wings have round-headed niches with similar architraves. Lead rainwater heads are visible. A remaining one-bay section of a similar but lower service wing is set far back on the left.

The west front dates from around 1701 and is of 3–1–3 bays, with the centre projecting slightly. It has a sliding sash door in an architrave with segmental pediment. Late 18th-century sashes have thin glazing bars and moulded stone architraves with keystones throughout. A pedimented dormer above the balustrade has a shouldered architrave. Fine late 17th- and early 18th-century decorated lead rainwater heads are present. The south front is of 1–5–1 bays without a string course. The centre has a sliding sash door in a shouldered architrave and pediment on consoles; windows below have balustrading. The first floor has square 6-pane sashes, while outer bays have 12-pane sashes. Stone architraves are plain with cornices. A one-bay section of the service wing is slightly recessed on the right, with a half-glazed door and tripartite sash above.

The interior contains exceptional Palladian schemes. The Entrance Hall, of around 1750, was specifically designed to incorporate William Holbech's collection of antique and contemporary classical sculpture and is one of the earliest of such rare schemes. It features a marbled stone fireplace with consoles and Rococo frieze, an overmantel with pilaster strips and a copy of a Panini painting, and a broken pediment surmounted by a head of a Roman boy. Large moulded niches to left and right have imposts and keystones, with oval medallion portraits of a Severan lady above. Mahogany 6-panelled doors with original fittings have moulded architraves with pulvinated frieze and cornice. Moulded oval niches housing busts are positioned on elaborate plaster consoles between doors and as overdoors. These contain a 2nd-century head of a boy (left), an 18th-century Emperor Caracalla (left wall), an 18th-century warrior, an early 3rd-century Roman lady, a Goddess, an 18th-century Septimus Severus (right), Emperor Hadrian, an antique head of a Roman, an antique Marcus Aurelius, a 3rd-century head of an elderly man (right), a head of a Goddess (front wall), an 18th-century medallion head of Socrates above the window, a head of Apollo between windows, Marcus Aurelius as a boy, a medallion of a bearded man between window and door, a 2nd-century head of a Roman above the door, and two Neoclassical medallions of a female figure and putto. The ceiling features octagonal and rectangular compartments with Rococo plasterwork and cartouches of Diana and Bacchus. The floor is of light and dark flags, echoing the ceiling compartments.

The Dining Room, also of around 1750, was designed to incorporate views of Rome and Venice by Canaletto and Panini, and is similarly one of the earliest schemes of this type. It has a marble fireplace with decorated pilaster strips and consoles, an overmantel with a large eared picture frame and broken pediment surmounted by a black marble bust of a philosopher. A large round-headed niche opposite has a moulded cornice and broken pediment. Moulded 6-panelled mahogany doors in elaborately moulded eared architraves have vine-ornamented pulvinated frieze and broken pediments. The plasterwork is of very fine quality, with three pairs of elaborately moulded plaster picture frames of differing designs. Two windows in moulded architraves have Vitruvian scroll frieze and scrolled pediments. A wall panel features an oval pier glass in an elaborate frame with urns and large cornucopia, whilst four wall panels have elaborate trophies—musical instruments on the window wall, and guns, bows and other weapons elsewhere.

The Library contains a Rococo fireplace. An oak open-well staircase and ceiling date from around 1695; the lower flight was replaced in 1926, and the upper portions were redecorated around 1750. The staircase has fluted and turned balusters, a moulded handrail, a carved scrolled open string, and a dado of bolection-moulded panels. Moulded doorcases are present. The ceiling features fine Rococo plasterwork with an acanthus string course incorporating central ram's heads. Three walls have large projecting panels with elaborately moulded eared architraves and scrolled pediments with central motifs. Each panel contains a plain oval niche and moulded console, similar to those in the Entrance Hall, housing a bust: an early 3rd-century Roman lady (left wall), Emperor Lucius Verus (centre), and an early 2nd-century head of a lady (right). The landing has a similar panel flanked by 6-panelled doors in moulded architraves. A moulded archway with keystone is to the left, and a late 17th-century moulded 8-panelled door is to the right. An oval skylight has very rich high relief wreath decoration. Corner panels bear the arms and initials of William and Elizabeth Holbech. The skylight has four panels of Rococo plasterwork and paterae, with 19th-century coloured glass.

The Holbech family has occupied Farnborough Hall since 1692.