Torrells Hall

Torrells Hall is a house with complex development, dating from the late 16th century, the 18th century, and around 1800. The building is a combination of red brick and gault brick construction, with roofs of peg tile and slate.

The southern, front block was added around 1800 by John Johnson, County Surveyor, and is built in gault brick with a low-pitched slate roof featuring a parapet and red ridge tiles. It is two storeys high, with a stone cornice/parapet and a stone band at the level of the first-floor window cills. The first floor has three tripartite sash windows with segmental heads and square panes; the central window features dummy side lights. The ground floor has two similar windows and a projecting, fluted Doric porch with an original six-panel door and a semicircular fanlight.

The earlier part of the house, to the rear, is mainly of red brick in English bond with various peg tile roofs. A two-storey block with attics, facing north, has a parapetted gable with moulded brick corbelled shoulders and a truncated gable finial. The eaves feature three courses of diagonal brick cornicing, and a large stack with rounded offsets abuts the east flank. The north-facing windows are later sash and casement windows, some within earlier openings. A two-storey block to the south has mid-18th century diapered red and grey brickwork on the east side, featuring a simple entrance door and various contemporary double-hung sashes with small panes. Two single-storey gabled blocks project from this face, enclosing a small courtyard.

A late 17th-century lean-to extension to the north has a slate roof, while a further peg tile and brick lean-to completes the north-west corner. This corner section has a gabled two-light dormer and three segmental arched hooded openings: one blocked, one with a three-light casement, and one with a repositioned door surround. The architecture of this element dates to the late 16th century, displaying a moulded cornice with Ionic pilasters featuring strapwork and latticed rustication.

The interior of the front block shows a barrel-coved entrance passage, reeded architraves and cornices, an atypical staircase with straight rod balusters, and a pair of 'palmyra' columns defining a dining room recess. A leaded light window in the west flank wall contains fragments of old heraldic glass. The 16th-century block contains a complete open well staircase, with square newels bearing ogee finials, arcaded inner balustrading, and turned, symmetrical balusters. Adjoining the base of the staircase are the remains of a tall screen with giant fluted pilasters on pedestals and abundant fret and strapwork detail. The structure shows evidence of heavily framed timbers, including double side purlins with wind bracing. Most original fireplace openings are now blocked, but a small, arched and chamfered fireplace remains in a small first-floor room. A number of 16th and 17th century plank doors and some areas of 17th-century panelling still exist throughout the building.