The Big House

SANDWELL MB CHURCH STREET (west side) SO 9889 NE SO 9989 NW Oldbury 15/67 No 44 (The Big House) 16/67 18.1.50 GV II*

House, now offices. Early C18. Brick in Flemish bond with painted stone dressings and hipped slate roof. Double-depth plan. A symmetrical composition of three storeys and five bays with chamfered quoins. Windows are boxed sashes with glazing bars and stone lintels with keystones. Band above each storey, and moulded eaves cornice. Door of eight raised and fielded panels with panelled reveals. Timber doorcase of reeded engaged columns and swan-necked pediment, the latter closed at the top by an additional open triangular pediment. Within the pediment is painted: "AD 1705". At the rear some windows have elliptical brick arches. Interior: the principal ground floor rooms each have an exposed ceiling beam. The right hand front room has an inglenook fireplace with re-used timber bressummer and panelled jambs, now containing a cast iron hob grate with Adamesque decoration. The open-well stair has an open string, three turned balusters to each tread, and a ramped and wreathed handrail. The interior doors are mostly of raised and fielded panels. On the second floor are two panelled doors of c1700.

Listing NGR: SO9899889711