Hintlesham Hall

Hintlesham Hall is a Grade I listed country house, now operating as a hotel. The building has a complex architectural history spanning from its core dating to around 1576, through alterations undertaken in the 1680s by Henry Timperley, to a comprehensive remodelling carried out circa 1725-40 by Richard Powys.

The house is constructed of brick with rendered main facade and stone dressings, beneath hipped plain tile roofs. Originally of E-plan form, the centre arm was either removed or incorporated into the 18th-century facade. The building rises to two storeys with attics.

The south-west facade is the principal elevation, presenting a symmetrical composition of five bays flanked by four-bay wings with two-bay south-west elevations, arranged 2:1:1:1:1:1:2. The main range features a rusticated ground floor and rusticated quoins to the wings, with rendered parapets, a moulded cornice, and a first-floor rendered band. A central doorway is flanked by superimposed orders: at ground floor by paired engaged unfluted Ionic columns beneath an entablature with modillion cornice, and at first floor by Corinthian pilasters beneath a pediment contained within the parapet. The entrance comprises a pair of glazed doors with margin lights below overlights with glazing bars forming a semi-circle. Similar French windows to left and right feature semi-circular heads and are glazed with margin lights beneath arches with raised keystones; this fenestration dates to 1819 and fills what were originally open arches.

The first floor displays a central Palladian window with a grotesque keystone mask and a lunette beneath the pediment. To each side are full-height sashes with heavy glazing bars, those in the outer bays being pedimented and articulated by Corinthian pilasters between the windows, linked by a cornice to the central feature. The inner flanks of the wings are identical but asymmetrical, each displaying four sashes with heavy glazing bars to each floor, with a blind doorway between the first and second bays. Pedimented doorcases with Ionic pilasters, pulvinated friezes, modillion cornices, panelled reveals, and eight-panel fielded doors are positioned on each wing.

The west elevations of the wings are identical, each presenting two bays with sashes with glazing bars to each floor.

The rear elevation displays 16th-century brickwork with diaper patterning in the right-hand bay and stack. Irregular gabled bays alternate with massive stacks offset above the eaves and featuring grouped octagonal shafts. This elevation rises to two and a half storeys in a 3:3:3 rhythm, with sashes with glazing bars to each floor, including four ground-floor French windows, and 2:2:2 dormer sashes with glazing bars.

The south-east elevation is asymmetrical and exhibits 16th-century, 18th-century, and 19th-century work. Four massive external stacks are offset above the eaves, with the centre pair linked by flush brickwork. The first and third stacks are largely 16th-century, featuring grouped octagonal shafts with moulded bases; the left stack has an oversailing cap and moulded bands at first-floor and eaves height. Fenestration is scattered and largely consists of sashes with glazing bars, including an early 19th-century stairwell light with a semi-circular head and margin lights. Three dormers with sashes and glazing bars are present. A 20th-century flat-roofed extension obscures the ground floor of the north-west elevation, which is asymmetrical and originally had four stacks, one of which has been reduced. Some 16th-century brickwork remains, including crowstepping to the third stack, with scattered fenestration and three dormers with sashes and glazing bars.

The interior contains significant features of note. The saloon, formerly the hall of the 16th-century house, rises through two storeys and is pine-panelled, formerly grained, with a dentil cornice. A stone chimneypiece features an eared surround, swagged frieze, and a broken pedimented overmantel with garlanded pilasters. A mahogany pedimented doorcase with engaged Corinthian columns encloses a semi-circular-headed doorway, with a keystone bearing the Powys arms and a pair of four-panel doors.

The former dining room, now a bar, displays raised and fielded pine panelling with a moulded dentil cornice and a marble fire surround with shaped brackets.

The north stairs date to circa 1680 and comprise an oak closed-string dog-leg stair with garlands and urn finials capped by flowers. The string is carved with foliage panels, and turned balusters with leaves are set low on the bulb. The moulded rail carries a carved cornice, and a panelled dado runs beneath.

The south stair dates to the mid-18th century and is constructed of mahogany with an open well and open string. Each tread continues well under the one above, with carved ends. Fluted Corinthian newels support twisted balusters on a vase, two per tread. The rail is ramped and wreathed, with rondels replacing torcheres above each newel.

The Justice room and offices, formerly a museum, are panelled with marble fire surrounds, as is the similar library, now the billiard room.

On the first floor, the drawing room, known as the Carolean Room, dates to the 1680s and features a very fine plastered ceiling of richly cut naturalistic decoration arranged in panels. The corners bear the initials HT, comparable with plasterwork at Felbrigg and Melton Constable in Norfolk, both dated 1687. The walls and dado are bolection-moulded panelled, with an elaborately moulded cornice. An eared coloured marble fire surround features a bay-leaf pulvinated frieze and Greek key cornice, with an overmantel beneath a small pediment whose pilasters carry husked garlands.

A chamber, now the principal bedroom, contains a moulded stone fireplace with a keyed oval panel above, also of stone, containing a picture of the house, said to be 18th-century, though it does not correspond with one formerly in the saloon.

The apsed entrance hall, formerly an open loggia, is overlooked by a gallery above featuring a pair of semi-circular-headed doorways at each end, giving access to the wings past the saloon.