Hindlip Hall

Hindlip Hall

Country house, now the headquarters of West Mercia Constabulary. Built in the early 19th century with late 19th-century and mid-20th-century alterations and additions. The building is constructed of cream-coloured brick with ashlar dressings, part slate and part copper roofing, and features massive brick chimneys.

The main structure is a symmetrical composition in the Greek Revival style. The central rectangular block rises three storeys plus a mid-20th-century attic storey with copper-sheeted sides and flat roof behind a parapet. It is five bays wide, with a 1:3:1 bay arrangement. Giant pilasters mark the ends, and the central three bays break forward beneath a pediment. All windows have moulded architraves. First-floor windows are glazing-bar sashes with nine panes on the second floor and five casements in the attic storey. The outer ground-floor windows are full-length fifteen-pane sashes with architrave and cornice above. A sill band runs beneath the first-floor windows.

The centrepiece is a blind tetrastyle Ionic portico with cast iron columns, housing a central doorway with flanking windows. All openings are round-headed with console-shaped keyblocks and imposts, fitted with barred segmental fanlights. The windows are multi-paned casements and the doors are part-glazed. Large elliptical windows flank the portico, similarly detailed. A string course runs beneath the sill level.

The main block is flanked by projecting wings attached by overlapping pavilions. The pavilions are late 19th-century replacements of the original quadrants, with pyramidal roofs, two storeys and a sill band beneath first-floor windows. A balustraded parapet at the centre of each pavilion bears carved heraldic work: the coat of arms of the Allsopp family on the left pavilion and the crest of West Mercia Constabulary on the right. Each pavilion has three bays with four-pane sashes with moulded architraves. The central ground-floor windows have an architrave and cornice above; the left pavilion has an inserted 20th-century door.

The wings are two storeys but lower in height than the main block, with a band between storeys and a low parapet to hipped roofs. They have three bays each. The ground floor features three blind round-headed archways with an impost band. All windows have gauged flat heads. The left wing contains glazing-bar sashes inserted in the archways and nine-pane first-floor sashes. The right wing has a 20th-century casement in the left archway, a central glazing-bar sash, two first-floor 20th-century casements, and the right end bay is obscured by a later extension.

The garden elevation to the south mirrors the front: the main section has three storeys and an attic with band and parapet. It follows a 1:3:1 bay arrangement with pilasters at main bay divisions. The outer ground-floor bays have canted bay windows. All windows have moulded architraves. Ground-floor windows are fifteen-pane full-length sashes except those flanking the canted bays, which have ten panes. First-floor windows are glazing-bar sashes, nine-pane sashes on the second floor, and five casements in the attic storey. A central doorway has a multi-paned door. A moulded parapet between scrolls rises above the central three bays. The side wings are now much altered and extended.

Interior features include moulded cornices and doorheads in the main ground-floor rooms. The entrance hall contains two Ionic columns with flanking antae. An open well staircase to the right front of the main section has wrought iron balusters and a moulded handrail.

The site was originally occupied by a timber-framed manor house, replaced in 1572 by a large brick building. This was destroyed by fire in 1820, and the present structure was built for Viscount Southwell. Upon his death in 1860, the house was sold to Henry Allsopp, a brewery magnate who became the first Baron Hindlip in 1886 and undertook the pavilion alterations. In the early 20th century, the Allsopp family moved to Wiltshire and the estate was sold to Worcestershire County Council in 1947. It has served as the headquarters of West Mercia Constabulary since 1967.