Rackheath Hall

Rackheath Hall is a country house built between 1852 and 1854 for Humphrey Stracey. The house is constructed of red brick, with rendered and ashlar detailing. The ground floor is ashlar with vermiculation. The roofs are slated, the main block’s roof being hidden behind a parapet. The building has three storeys and a cellar.

The west facade is of nine bays, with the central bay projecting and featuring giant Ionic corner pilasters. A central portico is topped with Tuscan columns and a frieze, and has a balustrade at first floor level. It has sash windows with glazing bars. The first and second floor windows have rendered surrounds, and the first floor windows have flat canopies supported by console brackets. A plat band runs along the first floor cill level. Massive corner pilasters extend to giant Ionic columns. A moulded cornice with rope-work frieze sits above, and a panelled and pierced parapet features stone balusters. Stone urns are positioned at the corners of the parapet.

The north front, of six bays, has a central three-bay Tuscan porte-cochere. The off-centre entrance features a bolection moulded architrave and cornice, an ornate rectangular fanlight, and a 20th-century door. A massive full-height pilaster is located on the left-hand side of the door. Detailing and surface treatment mirror those of the west facade.

The symmetrical south facade consists of nine bays, with a central three-bay segmental bow. It features giant Ionic pilasters on a rusticated and vermiculated ground floor. Sash windows extend to ground level in the outer bays; the three central sashes have no glazing bars. The tall first floor sashes have glazing bars and elaborately moulded architraves, apron panels and pediments on console brackets. Surviving elements of a parapet with urns remain.

To the east is a lower service wing and a conservatory, both with some 20th-century windows.