Gatehouse And Curtain Walls At Rushall Hall

WALSALL MB LEIGH ROAD (off) SP 09 NW Rushall 7/59 Gatehouse and curtain walls at Rushall Hall (formerly listed as 19.10.51 Ruins of Rushall Hall)

GV II* Curtain walls of c1300 with gatehouse of c1500, incorporating gateway of c1300, with second floor added and windows altered c1600, partly demolished c1830-40. Gatehouse of limestone rubble with some sandstone dressings and brick flues. One storey, with lower part of first floor walls surviving and with part of south wall surviving to above second floor level. West wall battered, with string course above chamfered gateway with segmental arch. Above the arch, and below the lower part of a blocked window opening, is the carved shield of arms of the Harpur family, who owned Rushall Hall from 1430 until 1540. The east wall has a gateway chamfered in two orders, with segmental arch and hood. Interior: the passageway has a rubble barrel- vault. In the north-east corner is a circular stair to the first floor. In the south wall is a, chamfered fireplace with shallow segmental head. At the upper level the south wall has two moulded fireplaces, formerly serving the first and-the second floors. In the north-west corner are the remains of a garderobe. The curtain walls are of limestone rubble and enclose a rectangular area of 5383 square metres used as a garden. They survive to a height of over six metres and are mostly crenellated. At the north-west corner of the site they are incorporated into Rushall New Hall (qv). Fireplaces, presumably heating now-demolished buildings inside the enclosure, are built into the walls. They are chamfered, with canted herds and some brick dressings: to each side of the gatehouse one is visible, and there is a further one in the south wall. The gatehouse is described and illustrated in Baker, NJ, "The Gatehouse of Rushall Hall, Staffs", South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, Vol XXIII, 1981-2, pp 79- 88. Scheduled Ancient Monument, County no (Staffs) 25).

Listing NGR: SP0254399865