Wood Norton Hall

Wood Norton Hall

Country house built in 1897 by architect G.H. Hunt for the Duc d'Orleans. The building is constructed of red brick with freestone dressings and some timber-framing with pargeted panels. It has plain machine tile roofs with coped parapeted gable ends, and brick axial, gable-end and lateral stacks with brick shafts and corbelling.

The mansion is planned with principal rooms on the south front and the entrance on the east side, with the entrance hall in the north-east corner leading to an axial corridor behind the principal rooms and services at the back. The style is Jacobethan.

The exterior presents two and three storeys with an attic storey. The asymmetrical south garden front has a complex arrangement of 1:2:1:3:1:2 bays. The three single bays are gabled and advanced, featuring ashlar three-storey canted bay windows with cartouches and arms and a date in a pinnacled gable above. Between the gabled bays, the first and attic floors are timber-framed with pargeted fleur-de-lis in the panels and gabled dormers. Between the two right-hand gables is a three-bay colonnade with a balustrade above. A large lateral stack on the right has a stone corbelled shaft with a panel containing a Royal cipher and crown. Lead drain pipes and rainwater heads feature Royal ciphers and crowns.

The asymmetrical east entrance front is of 1:2:1 bays. The first floor of the central two bays is timber-framed as on the south front, while the outer bays are gabled and advanced. The left bay mirrors the south front treatment. The right bay is larger with a stepped gable and large polygonal turrets, and a large carved stone Royal arms in the gable. There is a canted oriel on the first floor and a three-centred arch doorway on the right with crowns, Royal cipher and fleur-de-lis in the spandrels. Inside the porch are large carved stone arms and doors with carved panels and fine repoussé door-plates.

The interior is sumptuously fitted out with most rooms elaborately panelled and ceiled. There are intricately detailed door panels, over-doors, door-plates and elaborate chimney pieces. Inside the fireplaces are cast-iron fire-backs with arms and fleur-de-lis. Above the panelling in some corridors and above the stair dados are tapestries with fleur-de-lis and Royal ciphers. The staircases are finely carved with arcaded balustrades and carved crowns on the newels. One original bathroom remains intact with a panelled ceiling, marble walls and a bath with shower surmounted by a crown. Some original light fittings survive. The roof has been rebuilt following a fire and the attics were gutted.

In 1872 the estate was purchased by the Duc d'Aumale, the fourth son of the King of France. After his death in 1897 it passed to his great-nephew the Duc d'Orleans, who rebuilt Wood Norton Hall. The Duc d'Aumale was pretender to the French throne, and the claim passed to the Duc d'Orleans in 1897. The family left Wood Norton Hall in 1912. The British Broadcasting Corporation purchased the hall in 1939 before the Second World War, as a potential refuge should hostilities necessitate moving out of London. By 1940 the site had become one of Europe's largest broadcasting centres. After the war, Wood Norton became the BBC's engineering training centre.