Snettisham Old Hall

Snettisham Old Hall

A hall incorporating a manor house of the later 16th or earlier 17th century, remodelled in the 18th and early 19th centuries by the Styleman family, who later became associated with Hunstanton Hall. The house was originally built on an H-plan with a solar at the east end, hall in the centre, and service rooms at the west, with a central entrance gable and two returned gables.

The construction is of rubble carstone with brick dressings on the south front, supplemented by later galleted carstone work. The north front features coursed, squared and dressed carstone of 18th-century date with some brick at the north-east corner. The west service wing comprises two different carstone builds. The roofs are covered with black glazed pantiles, slate at the south-east, and 20th-century pantiles over the west service wing.

The earliest work may date to Sir Wymond Cary (died 1612), and plaster work formerly reported in the house bore a cypher of Henry, Prince of Wales (died 1612). Alternatively, it may relate to his heir, who purchased the manor from James I in 1614 but sold it promptly. From 1710 to 1835 the house was occupied by the Styleman family.

The south front retains largely 18th-century details, although the earlier H-plan forms survive. It comprises two outer two-bay gabled return wings and a five-bay centre. The central projecting wings have two ground-floor and two first-floor windows under flat rubbed brick arches. Dutch gables feature single segmental rubbed brick arch heads. All sashes have glazing bars and are of 18th-century date. The central storey contains a former entrance porch with ground-floor glazed French doors under a flat rubbed brick arch and a first-floor barred sash with arched switch tracery in a Gothick head under a fine segmental rubbed brick arch. A wooden open pediment cornice flanks two bays to the west, each with two ground-floor and two first- and first-floor 18th-century sashes with glazing bars under flat rubbed brick arches; to the east is one ground-floor and two first-floor sashes of similar character. All sashes are clearly inserted in earlier openings; the walls and brick quoins are earlier still. A raised parapet to the centre and lead down pipes dated 1737 inscribed with the initials "NAS" for Nicholas and Armine Styleman suggest this date for the refenestration and addition of Dutch gables. Three attic flat-roofed sashed dormers light the upper storey. At the south-east corner an early 19th-century wooden lead-roofed porch with Doric pilasters and pedimented gable contains two glazed French doors.

The east return of the east wing includes an early 19th-century addition: a two-storey carstone and brick-dressed semi-circular bow with three ground-level silled sashes and three first-floor sashes with glazing bars. Adjacent is a brick bay with one ground-floor and one first-floor sash. This work may be contemporary with the infilling of the north side of the H-plan to form two gabled wings of two bays each, with a five-bay range in the centre, all in carstone. The centre has two outer arched and fanlight-headed sashes with glazing bars lighting staircases, with three further sashes between them. An early 19th-century flat-roofed single-storey wing with a wooden porch featuring a fanlight-headed door and swept leaded roof adjoins to the ground floor. Stacks rise to the ridge of both wings and to the centre of the main roof pitch, with two stacks to each.

The long west service wing comprises at least two separate builds. On its south front facing the entrance court, the return has four ground-floor and four first-floor sashes of 18th-century remodelling. A first-floor datestone of 1632 is partly obscured by brick stitching of a 17th-century window. At the north, where it meets the H-plan, stands a brick-dressed former door with an arched head, probably of the early 17th century. To the south and returned to the west, a carstone wall screens 20th-century additions. Within the service court to the west, a central straight joint divides an earlier south end from an 18th-century north section.

Internally, a later 16th-century stone fireplace was re-erected on the ground floor in 1980. The surviving evidence of architectural interest is confined chiefly to the south-east wing or solar end of the original H-plan, remodelled in association with Henry Styleman (1755–1819), possibly immediately prior to his death, though earlier 18th-century or later 19th-century dates are also possible. The south-east bowed room has a rich Greek Revival cornice suggesting a later date. The entrance porch, hall, and north staircase with cast iron balusters and tented plaster ceiling and cornice are probably pre-1819; an 1817 date is associated with incomplete building accounts for work by the builder Richard Egmore. Reused mid-18th-century panelling survives at the first-floor south-west corner. The house was purchased in 1877 by Edward Green, who built Ken Hill or Snettisham New Hall in 1878–1881.