St Clere'S Hall

St Clere's Hall

Farmhouse built in 1735 for James Adams, Clerk of the Stables to George II from 1727 to 1760. The building incorporates a late 17th-century wing to the left (east side).

The main structure is constructed in chequer brick beneath a plain old tile mansard roof with brick end stacks. The building displays early Georgian style with picturesque influence and employs a double-depth plan. It comprises two storeys with an attic storey.

The principal front elevation is symmetrical across a five-window range. Windows are fitted with segmental arches over 12-pane sashes with thick glazing bars. The central doorway has panelled double doors with original fittings set in a square-headed wood architrave, topped by an urn set on a triple keystone. Raised string courses and a crenellated parapet run across the facade, with three pedimented dormers set into the mansard roof, each containing 6-pane sashes. A crenellated stair tower projects from the right side wall.

The rear elevation is more elaborate. It features segmental arches over mid to late 19th-century sashes. A projecting canted two-storey crenellated bay is flanked by one-storey, two-bay ranges with blind round windows set beneath crenellated parapets. The range to the left has a further mid-18th-century bay with a stone-coped parapet added later. An 18th-century panelled door opens to the left side wall.

The late 17th-century wing to the left is constructed of render over timber frame with a similar roof style.

Internally, the central hall features fielded panelling with a dentilled cornice and fine classical landscape paintings with ruins set in rectangular frames over the doors. A triple-keyed elliptical arch spans a screen with a panelled door to the rear; this door could be raised by a "portcullis" arrangement (the original machinery survives in the attic), allowing two rooms to be combined. The rear room contains a large reset late 19th-century Jacobean-style fireplace in a rectangular frame. A similar panelled room to the left features a triglyph frieze.

Two staircases serve the principal floor: an open-well staircase with turned balusters set on a closed string to the left, and a particularly fine open wall staircase to the right with panelled dado and dentilled cornice to the stairwell, ramped handrail, and turned balusters set on an open string.

On the first floor, the central room has fielded panelling with a cyma-moulded cornice. Flanking rooms have panelled dados, the room to the right retaining its original fireplace. A panelled passage leads from the right-hand room to the former main staircase. The central rear room is notable for fine classical land and seascapes with ships and temples set in four rectangular frames, and an exceptionally fine overmantle panel depicting a temple and female bathers set over a rectangular panel with festoons and brackets; this sits above a mid-19th-century surround to an 18th-century classical marble fireplace. Exposed timber framing is visible in the 17th-century bay at the extreme left.

The interior is noteworthy for the retention of its rare portcullis arrangement and original machinery, and for its exceptionally rare classical paintings in the manner of Poussin set in frames over doorways and fireplaces.

Panelled shutters and panelled doors with original fittings throughout are set in moulded wood architraves.