Cofton Hall

Country house, dating from the 15th century, with significant remodelling in the early 18th century and around 1796, likely by George Byfield for Robert Biddulph. Later alterations occurred in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. The building is timber-framed and clad in ashlar and stuccoed brick, with tile roofs. The south-east front incorporates a medieval hall to the right, originally of one storey and featuring two levels of two-light casement windows, restored in the mid-20th century. To the right of the hall is the early 18th century house, remodelled in the late 18th century, and standing three storeys high with a hipped tile roof. It features a parapet with a moulded cornice, a band to the ground floor, and a sill band to the first floor. There are six windows (likely originally seven), with nine-pane glazing bar sashes on the second floor and tall glazing bar sashes on the ground floor. A French casement window occupies the left-hand corner, and a portico with two Doric columns and a moulded cornice fronts the entrance on the right side. Inside the hall is an eight-bay hammer-beam roof. Originally, the walls were timber-framed. The roof construction includes arch-braces from hammer-beam to collar, with pentagonal bosses on the collar, and pierced tracery above. Brackets from the wall-posts to the hammer-beams are cusped with shields at the base. George Byfield’s unexecuted designs for Cofton Hall, including a drawing of the principal front in its existing state, are documented.