Wood Hall

Wood Hall is a country house located on Sutton Wood Hall Drive, originally constructed in 1566 and substantially enlarged in the early 20th century. The building is constructed in red English bond brick with a plain tile roof. The architect responsible for the early 20th-century additions was W. Kemp, as documented in an architectural drawing held in the entrance hall.

The original structure follows a 16th-century H-shaped plan, which remains visible on the garden front. The building was considerably enlarged in a loosely Tudor style during the early 20th century, with extensions added to the east and north fronts.

The garden front presents a complex arrangement of features. The central section is E-shaped, with the original 1566 porch and portions dating to 1903 flanked by a service wing also of around 1903. The central porch is constructed of rubbed brick and features a four-centered arch with a moulded surround, including shafts with moulded caps and bases. Polygonal buttresses at the corners die back into the angles at ground-floor level via domed caps. Single-light windows flank the porch, while a four-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions and transom occupies the first floor. A circular recessed panel with hood mould is set within the gable, capped with moulded brick. Five-light windows with ovolo-moulded surrounds sit either side of the porch at ground-floor level, with similar four-light windows above at first-floor level. All windows feature square hood moulds. The projecting lateral wings display five-light windows to the ground floor and four-light windows to the first floor, with three-light gable windows without transoms. The right-hand gable exhibits brick tumbling, while the left gable is plain. Three three-light hipped dormer windows serve the attics. Massive chimney stacks of early 20th-century date rise at either side, each comprising six polygonal shafts with moulded caps. An octagonal cupola sits within the valley behind the roof ridge, its sides tile-hung and topped with an octagonal ogee-domed copper cap with projecting ribs at the corners and a weather vane above.

Late 19th-century photographs reveal that this front originally featured a hipped roof and sash windows with a single-storey porch. Scars in the present brickwork at either side of several windows indicate that the current fenestration has disturbed an earlier pattern of more numerous, smaller windows.

To the left, a further early 20th-century gabled wing is set back from the main front. It has a glazed 20th-century doorway at ground-floor level to the right, with a two-light overdoor, and a cross window to its left. A four-light window lights the first floor, and a similar three-light window the gable, all with ovolo-moulded surrounds. To the left runs a single-storey service range with a slightly projecting central gable featuring two-light windows to right and left under a continuous hood mould, and a single-light window above in the gable. To the right of this arrangement is a further single-light window; to the left is an imposed 20th-century window with aluminium-framed casements set within an earlier opening. At the extreme left stands a gabled, slightly projecting wing containing a four-light ground-floor window and three-light first-floor window, both with ovolo-moulded surrounds. A square turret with an ogee-moulded lead cap with projecting ridges rises to the ridge.

The right-hand flank features a projecting semi-octagonal bay window of around 1903 with ashlar surrounds, mullions, and transoms. Blank keyed oculi appear at the front and angles at parapet level. To the left are a five-light ground-floor and four-light first-floor window with ovolo-moulded surrounds, as before. Two three-light hipped dormers light the attic.

The entrance front presents a three-bay, three-storey symmetrical arrangement to the centre with a projecting single-storey porch of rubbed brick. The porch echoes the ground-floor portion of the garden-front porch wing but features a battlemented parapet at its centre with a recessed circular panel bearing a shield inscribed with the dates and initials CQ. Either side of the porch are three-light mullioned and transomed windows at ground-floor level, with three similar windows at first-floor level and three further similar windows without transoms in the gablets at attic level, all bearing ovolo-moulded 20th-century surrounds. To the right is a three-light ground-floor window with two two-light windows at first-floor level, and further right a three-storey projecting gabled wing of 1903 with similar mullioned windows. To the left of the centre is an early 20th-century projecting square bay at ground-floor level. Further left is the originally projecting gabled wing, now flush with the imposed work of circa 1903, which is now blank but shows scars of earlier windows at ground and first-floor levels. A 20th-century chimney stack rises to the gable apex with two polygonal shafts.

Internally, a wide corridor of circa 1903 runs along the eastern front between the two formerly projecting wings. A staircase to the left features moulded Jacobean balusters and square panelled newel posts with ball finials. One ground-floor room retains richly moulded Jacobean wood panelling, possibly brought from elsewhere, together with an early 20th-century richly moulded plaster ceiling. The drawing room displays less elaborate panelling and plasterwork.