Cringleford Hall

Cringleford Hall is a house situated adjacent to a moated site, dating from the 16th century with substantial additions of the 18th and 19th centuries. The building is constructed of brick, with the 16th-century portion rendered, possibly over a timber frame, and covered with black glazed pantiles. The house has an irregular plan, with a 16th-century core of three bays, an addition of one bay dating to around 1600 to the east, and an attached three-bay cross wing to the west probably of the late 17th century, which was encased in brick around 1850. A tall single-storey range of the late 18th century stands in the angle to the south. The building is two storeys throughout, except for the late 18th-century range.

The north facade presents the 16th-century range at its centre, rendered and colourwashed, with a brick crow-stepped gable to the left and an external stack shared by an attached single bay. The first floor is jettied. The centre bay features a gable and an attached two-storey flat-roofed canted bay of the 18th century. The ground floor of the first bay has a cross window with leaded lights and pintle hinges; the centre bay has a similar opening but without leaded lights; the third bay has a 19th-century door. The first floor contains a three-light casement to the first bay, a fixed window to the canted bay with glazing bars forming a semi-circular head and splaying to top angles, and a stair window to the third bay consisting of a fixed light with glazing bars and semi-circular head.

Interior details include a very steep roof with staggered purlins and no ridge piece. A central doorway, originally exterior but now within the canted bay, dates to the late 16th century and features a heavy quarter-moulded frame with nicked jewel stops. An 18th-century openwell stair has a closed string with turned balusters, an oak handrail, and a coved ceiling to the stairwell.

The lower two-storey single bay to the left dates to around 1600 and has an integral lean-to to the left, which are the remains of a former wing, rendered and colourwashed. The lean-to has a rectangular opening with 17th-century ovolo-moulded wood mullions and a garage door with a three-light casement above. The interior contains a chimney bay to the right with a large stack, and the ground floor features 30-centimetre floor tiles, a lead water pump dated F B (Frances Bates) 1794, and three tie beams with lamb's-tongue chamfer stops. The first floor has a four-centred arch to a brick fireplace in chamfered brick, L-shaped hinges, and a doorway between the chimney bay and the 16th-century core with a heavy moulded frame.

The west range has its west front and right return encased in gault brick around 1850, with a hipped roof of black glazed pantiles. The facade comprises three bays of two storeys. A central doorway features a semicircular portico with two Tuscan columns and square pilasters, and a flat canopy with a 20th-century wrought iron balustrade. The wide door has an upper part that is glazed with glazing bars. Recessed tripartite sashes to the ground floor have gauged brick segmental arches, while the first floor has recessed sashes with glazing bars similar to those of the first floor of the canted bay of the 16th-century range to the north. The right return has openings matching those of the west facade. The north return is flush with the 16th-century core, rendered and colourwashed, with a hipped roof and a two-storey flat-roofed canted bay featuring 18th-century sashes with glazing bars and crown glass to the ground floor, two blank openings, and a central sash with glazing bars to the first floor. The interior contains 19th-century panelled doors and cellars of late 17th-century brick with a three-tier butt purlin roof of old oak timbers, some with principals in pine and narrow pine rafters at the angles of the hips; the roof was probably refashioned and hipped around 1850.

Within the angle of the west range and 16th-century core stands a late 18th-century tall music room constructed of red brick with a bowed facade to the south, slightly forward, and black glazed pantiles conical to the facade. It features a brick dentil cornice and three tall semi-circular-headed sashes with glazing bars to the ground floor. The interior has a coved ceiling and two semi-circular-headed doorways to the west range. A central classical fireplace in marble with a reeded entablature faces east, flanked by two tall semi-circular-headed recesses, each containing a classical fireplace in marble with reeded entablature. Tall narrow mirrors between the windows have upper panels that are opaque, decorated with gilded lion's heads. The 18th-century window pelmets feature gilded oak leaf decoration.

The rear of the 16th-century range is constructed of red brick and features a central flush tripartite sash with glazing bars to the first floor and a gabled attic dormer. A single bay to the left, rendered and colourwashed, has a three-light casement with pintle hinge to the ground floor and a flush sash with glazing bars to the first floor.

Various 20th-century additions are of no special interest. The house was known as Hellesdon House in the 16th century and served as the parsonage for Intwood and Keswick from 1845 to 1959.