Faulkbourne Hall

Faulkbourne Hall is a mansion with a complex building history spanning the 15th to 19th centuries. The core structure dates from 1439–49, with significant additions made between 1449–94, around 1693, and during the 19th century. The building is constructed of red brick, predominantly laid in English bond, and roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

The original plan, documented by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), comprised a hall range aligned northeast to southwest with a crosswing at the northeast end, built 1439–49. Between 1449–94, a range was added to the northwest, incorporating a square tower at the north corner and a stair turret at its east corner. Around 1693, a wing was added to the southeast of the crosswing. Nineteenth-century extensions in the south angle completed an approximately rectangular plan. The building is mainly of two storeys with attics.

Southwest Elevation

The southwest elevation, now the principal entrance front, includes the 19th-century south extension and the remodelled front of the main block. It presents a symmetrical design of two bays divided by a 19th-century two-storey porch and flanked by two four-sided turrets. The northwest turret preserves original 15th-century brickwork on its northern faces, whilst the southern faces have been partly rebuilt in later brick with a moulded string course. The southeast turret follows a similar design but is built in Flemish bond with black headers. The main wall's brickwork is 19th century. The entire elevation features a brick corbel-table similar to that on the northwest elevation, though only that on the north face and part of the west face is original. Both turrets have crenellated parapets and octagonal crocketed spires of brick, probably dating from the 17th century. The northwest face of the northwest turret retains two original windows, each of a small single light (now blocked), with moulded jambs, square heads and moulded labels. On the northwest side of the 19th-century porch is a lead rainwater head inscribed "B E E 1666".

Northwest Elevation

The northwest elevation's main wall is divided by a two-storeyed bay window, flanked on the southwest by the turret described above and on the northeast by the great tower. The southwest portion of the main wall has a moulded string course between the two storeys (partly restored), and the entire elevation is crowned by a crenellated parapet. Below the parapet runs a corbel-table of cinquefoiled arches with trefoiled spandrels executed in moulded brick.

The northeast wall features an original late 15th-century oriel window in the upper storey, supported on five tapering and moulded brick corbels representing fan-vaulting, with moulded pendants. The window comprises four square-headed lights with brick transoms and mullions. On either side of it is a blocked window. The other windows in the main wall are 19th-century restorations.

The semi-octagonal bay window in the middle of this front has, on the ground floor, an original square-headed window in each face. The easternmost has been altered to a doorway, whilst the others have been widened by partially cutting away the moulding of the jambs. The first floor has three similar but unaltered windows with transoms under a single label, as are the three middle lights below. On the main wall northeast of the bay window is a rainwater head dated 1637 bearing the arms of Bullock.

The Great North Tower

The great north tower rises to four storeys including the basement. At the north and west angles are diagonal buttresses of three stages which carry octagonal turrets. Against the southwest wall of the tower, above the main block, is a 16th-century bay (now inaccessible), probably intended to contain a stair, with a quatrefoil piercing in its lit face. The merlons of the parapet are pierced with cross loops.

In the middle of the northwest side of the tower projects a chimney stack, corbelled out approximately two metres above ground level, with three truncated octagonal shafts. Below it are traces of a blocked basement window. The ground floor has two windows in each of the north walls and one in the southwest wall. The first floor has one window in each wall. These windows are of two lights with transoms and moulded labels, partly restored. The second floor has a single-light window with a label in each wall.

Northeast Elevation

The northeast elevation comprises three parts: the great tower, the crosswing of the original building, and the late 17th-century southeast wing. At the east angle of the tower is an octagonal stair-turret rising above the tower's summit, with a similar crenellated parapet and corbel-table. At each stage is a square light—the topmost retaining a quatrefoil, the others altered. The northeast parapet has the stump of a diagonal pinnacle.

The section southeast of the tower rises to three storeys and is flanked by two full-height bay windows. The two lower storeys are of early 15th-century brickwork, somewhat larger than those of the northwest elevation. The third storey is a late 17th-century addition or rebuild. The original first-floor level is marked by a moulded string-course.

The northern bay window is semi-hexagonal and has round shafts of cut brick at the angles with moulded bases. In the middle and southeast faces of the ground floor are original windows—the southeast window blocked, the middle window of two four-centred lights under a three-centred head. The second storey has, in each face, a tall early 18th-century sash window cutting through the original string-course. The third storey has 17th-century casements with high transoms.

The space between the northeast main wall and the stair turret has been filled in; the closing wall has an altered window with a three-centred head and two late 17th-century transomed casements (restored). The main wall between the bay windows has three late 17th-century casements and one early 18th-century sash.

The southern bay window is semi-octagonal, of greater projection than the northern bay, with low buttresses at the outer angles that are original or early. Each of the three outer faces of the ground floor contains an original window. The middle window is of two four-centred lights (restored) under a three-centred head, and the side windows are of single lights with three-centred heads. The two upper storeys have late 17th-century transomed casements, the lower ones set in original square-headed openings with moulded jambs and heads.

Late 17th-Century Southeast Wing

The late 17th-century southeast wing is of three storeys divided by moulded string-courses and has two feature gables on this elevation. The first storey has two late 17th-century casements (one blocked), and the third storey has two more (open). The second storey has five early 18th-century sashes and one blocked aperture.

The southeast end of this wing is constructed of red stretchers and black headers in Flemish bond, with the same string-course and a crow-stepped gable. On the second floor is an early 18th-century sash, and on the third floor a late 17th-century casement.

On the southwest side of this wing is a late 17th-century four-plank door with two lights over, now within a 19th-century arcade. At the northwest end of the arcade is a re-sited 17th-century door with applied diamonds, escutcheon plate and drop-handle. Above the 19th-century arcade is a late 17th-century casement on the first floor and two on the third floor. On the first floor of the southeast wall of the main building is an early 18th-century sash with crown glass.

Interior

The dining-room (identified as room 7 on the Royal Commission plan) has late 15th-century transverse moulded beams. At its northeast end, a passage has been partitioned off with late 16th-century oak panelling on one side and early 17th-century oak panelling on the other. The passage terminates in the northwest bay window, which has an elaborate vault with moulded brick ribs and liernes, with stone or plaster shields at the intersections.

The stair-turret at the east corner of the great tower contains brick winding steps and newel. In the outer wall is a recessed round handrail of moulded brick. At the basement level is a doorway with a four-centred head.

The kitchen (room 3 on the plan) retains the original early 15th-century timber-framed southwest wall and part of that on the southeast. The southwest wall is of three bays with moulded wallposts and has an original doorway with moulded frame and heavy six-panel door. Above this is a late 16th-century window of five lights with moulded jambs and mullions, and iron saddle bars. In the southeast wall is a similar window of three lights, and below it a recess, possibly a former doorway.

The main staircase, inserted around 1640 in the middle of the original building (room 2 on the plan), has a square well, moulded closed string and rail, square panelled newels with restored caps, and heavy turned and square balusters.

The upper storey of the bay window in the northwest elevation has a vaulted ceiling similar to that on the ground floor and is entered through an 18th-century partition closing the original brick archway, which has a four-centred head. Several rooms in the upper and attic storeys have early doors of wedge-shaped planks on battens.

In the vaulted cellar of the great tower, in the west wall, is a four-centred archway and recess, which possibly opened into a former staircase. In the south wall is a pointed recess, possibly a former doorway. The southeast stair turret is entered by a doorway with a four-centred arch; on this floor in the northwest wall is a brick fireplace with a four-centred head.