Hethersett Old Hall

This is a house, now used as a school, dating from 1774. It is constructed of red brick with a plain tiled roof. The original core of the house is a double-depth plan with five bays, two storeys high. An early 20th-century addition was built to the right return, and there have been subsequent additions to the left and rear.

The main facade, facing north-west towards the road, is built in Flemish bond brickwork. It features a hipped roof and full-height canted bays in a different brick colour to bays one and five, with polygonal tiled roofs. The canted bays and the central facade have a parapet with a painted wooden dentil cornice. Recessed sash windows with glazing bars are present, with the ground floor windows having gauged brick flat arches. A central doorway is sheltered by a semi-circular, flat-roofed portico supported by four Ionic columns with egg and dart moulding on their echini. The portico has a canopy with modillions, a lugged doorcase with panelled reveals, and a door with two raised and fielded panels. Additions to the left and forward left, and a single-storey addition to the right, are of less architectural significance. The right return has two flush sash windows with glazing bars on the first floor.

The rear facade is a varied composition due to numerous additions. Bay one has some darker bricks and glazed bricks, a flush sash with a cambered arch to the ground floor, and an oriel window with leaded glazing and a gabled dormer with a three-light casement with pintle hinges in the attic. Bays two to five have varied fenestration and additions, including a bay window in bay three and a stair turret in bay five – these are topped by three leaded roof dormers. A wing from around 1910 extends from the south-west return to the rear; it is brick on the ground floor and rendered on the first floor, with attached wooden studs. The southwest-facing facade of this wing features three large flush sash windows with glazing bars on the ground floor and two oriel windows supported by carved wooden brackets and polygonal wall posts on the first floor. The rear facade of the wing has a canted bay with French windows on the ground floor.

A service range at the rear, dating from around 1910, is in a style reminiscent of the 18th century, with a classical doorcase incorporating an earlier roughly carved bracket and a mask keystone.

The interior of the main core features a central hall spanning bays two to four. There is a screen to the left of the doorway composed of two Corinthian columns in antis, a black and white marble chequered floor, and lugged doorcases with panelled reveals. Original doors have two raised panels. An open-well open-string staircase is situated to the left, with a ramped and wreathed mahogany handrail with a thumb groove, and an ebony and ivory inset at the newel. A wide segmental arch is found to the rear right of the ground and first floors; the ground floor arch contains doors to a passage and a cellar with L hinges. A room on the ground floor to the rear right has raised panels to the wainscot. To the left of the principal block, an original 18th-century doorcase is now internal, with carved brackets. The doorway it originally served is now in a service wing dating from around 1910.