Kelling Hall

Kelling Hall

Country house dated 1913, designed by E.B. Maufe for H.W. Deterding, Director of Royal Dutch Petroleum. The building is constructed of square knapped flints with brick dressings, featuring vertical stripes of brick at the angles and plain tile roofing.

The house follows a butterfly plan with a main range of five bays, two storeys and attic, with four lower two-storeyed angle wings positioned one to each corner. The design is notable for its complex massing and varied window treatments throughout.

The south-west entrance front displays the principal architectural detail. Tall treble lozenge brick shafts rise at the gable ends of the flanking wings and at axial cross stacks either side of the central five bays. The three central bays project forward, each with a gable. The central bay features a brick arch of two orders with semi-circular head, containing wide double leaved doors with glazed leaded panels and semi-circular head. Above this is a lead-faced oriel window with swag decoration and the inscription HWA/D/MCMXIII, with four leaded casements and a cartouche at its base. Prominent dated drainheads and downpipes with acorn decoration flank the central bay. The second bay features two-light leaded casements to each floor and attic level. The fourth (stair) bay has two cross windows, the lower one shorter. The fifth bay has a five-light leaded casement to the ground floor and first floor, with a roof dormer having hipped roof. A further doorway with flat canopy and flanking lights opens from the first bay. Roof dormers with hipped roofs also rise from bays one and five.

The south and west wings each comprise three bays of two storeys. The centre bay of each wing is canted through two storeys to form a high parapet above eaves level, with leaded casements to each face at ground and first floor levels. Single fixed lights light the first and second bays of the first floor.

The south-east facade features a suntrap loggia between the gable ends of the south and east wings, supported on two square piers of tiles with a flint parapet above a flat roof. French windows open onto the loggia and flat roof. A canted roof dormer with hipped roof occupies the angle between the wings, and a canted bay to the left mirrors those on the south-west facade. The gable of the east wing displays a four-light leaded casement under a segmental head to the ground floor, two leaded casements to the first floor, and two-light windows with brick mullions to the attic floor.

The north-east facade presents a terrace facing down the valley towards the sea. This elevation comprises seven bays of two storeys and attics, with two-storey wings to the north and east. Bays three and five have wide canted bays rising to tall parapets; bay three forms a full height window glazed with leaded lights having ovolo mouldings to the brick mullions and three brick transoms. Bay five features a cross window with ovolo moulded brick mullions and transoms to the ground floor. The first floor has double leaded casements to bays two and six at ground floor level, and to bays two, four and six and the three faces of bay five. Single casements light the ground and first floors of bays one and four. Five roof dormers with hipped roofs rise along this elevation. A central double leaved leaded French window with segmental head opens onto the terrace, flanked by drainheads bearing tulip decoration. The east wing features a three-light leaded casement to the ground floor, with single lights lighting the north service wing. Tall lead cisterns marked D stand against the east and north wings.

A service wing extends to the north, with a service range to the rear of the west wing.

The interior features a closed string imperial staircase with turned balusters and carved newels. The stairwell has a domed ceiling with plaster leaf bands. The library to the north-east front rises through two storeys and is lined with panelling incorporating festoon carvings and panels over doors with carved tulips. Above the chimney breast is a circular pictorial map of the Kelling estate with a wind vane, and a plaster ceiling rose completes the room. The adjacent ground floor dining room is panelled with carved tulip panels over doors and an oval ceiling rose. The first floor of the east wing features a domed ceiling with plaster frieze.

The small bricks used throughout were specially imported from Holland, a detail reflecting the owner's connections to Dutch industry.