Longdon Hall

Longdon Hall

Longdon Hall is a former manor house largely dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, with possible earlier elements. It stands on Lady Byron Lane in Solihull.

The building is constructed of red brick with exposed timber framing visible in the north gables. The roofs are plain tiled hipped designs on the taller south range, with three small gables on the north ranges. Two tall brick chimney stacks rise to the rear of the main range, with an additional side stack to the west.

The plan is of double depth with a central entrance and staircase lobby. Single-storey gabled extensions containing service ranges project to the east and west.

The south elevation presents a polite symmetrical Queen Anne facade facing the garden. A central entrance doorway is flanked by two full-length French windows. The first floor contains three timber casements, with three dormer windows above; the outer dormers are hipped whilst the central dormer is gabled. Symmetrical brick stacks rise to the rear. Projecting brick string courses mark the divisions between ground floor and first floor, and between first floor and attics. The north elevation, facing the courtyard entrance, also displays a symmetrical facade though of earlier date. Three two-storey gabled wings project here; the outer wings are taller and wider, with exposed timber framing in their gables, whilst the central range has the appearance of a two-storey entrance porch infilling an earlier small courtyard. A large gabled dormer sits above the central range. Later symmetrical single-storey gabled service extensions flank the courtyard to east and west. Windows are a mixture of later 20th-century timber casements set largely in earlier flattened arch openings that echo the central open entrance porch. A large timber conservatory projects to the east.

Internally, the ground floor contains four large rooms arranged either side of a wide central entrance lobby with staircase. Chamfered stopped spine beams with exposed joists are visible throughout, and the remains of large brick fireplaces with timber bressumers survive in all three ground-floor reception rooms. Beyond the kitchen in the western extension lies a range of service rooms including a housekeeper's sitting room with a 19th-century tiled fireplace. Evidence of box-framed timber construction appears in both the east lobby wall and the ground-floor lavatory, which may include evidence for a smoke bay. The timber staircase to the first floor appears to date from the late 19th century. The first floor contains three bedrooms and a bathroom with exposed box framing, including chamfered stopped spine beams, jowelled posts, and box-framed partitions. A probable 18th-century timber winder staircase leads to the attics. The lower part of the 19th-century hipped roof structure is evident in the southern attic rooms, whilst earlier A-frame roof trusses survive in the northern attic rooms. Both first floor and attics preserve a range of early plank doors and original floorboards.

To the north of the Hall are the remains of a courtyard with dwarf walls and late 18th or early 19th-century agricultural buildings arranged around three sides. The 1887 first edition Ordnance Survey illustrates this as an extensive range of farm buildings, which survived at least until the 1937 fourth edition. The western range was truncated and converted into stables with Listed Building Consent in the late 20th century; only the rear wall of the northern range now survives. The eastern range is best preserved, comprising a large barn with ancillary buildings and a subsidiary courtyard further east. The barn is in poor condition with much of its original plain tiled roof missing, though its interior preserves at least five large queen-post roof trusses. These agricultural buildings, whilst incomplete, form an important group with Longdon Hall and the infilled remains of the moat lying immediately to the north.