Broke Hall

Broke Hall is a large country house built in the Gothick style, largely dating from 1792 by James Wyatt. It was likely a remodelling of an earlier house of 1775 designed by Richard Norris, both commissions for Philip Broke. The house is constructed of red brick with limestone detailing, featuring slender buttresses at the corners and flanking the central block. It has embattled parapets with cornices and weathered copings, and hipped slated roofs with external and internal brick chimneys. The entrance front is of three storeys and five windows, with a slightly projecting central block of three windows and wider flanking blocks featuring prominent two-storey canted bay windows. The sash windows have flat arches of gauged brick and moulded square hoodmoulds, with small panes. The upper central windows are four-centred arched and hood-moulded, with curved and intersecting glazing bars. A late 19th/early 20th century red brick porch with a limestone cornice and parapet sits at the main entrance, featuring a grey marble doorway with Corinthian columns and a pair of oak panelled doors. The rear garden elevation displays a pair of slightly projecting wings, each containing a single window but of equal width to the recessed three-window centre block. Polygonal buttresses, reduced in height at the first storey and with battlemented parapets, are located at each corner of the wings. A central arched niche, that previously held a statue, is set above a blind window framing a carved stone achievement. Each wing has a large French window. A loggia with a triple pointed arcade connects the wings, with a blind arched and hood-moulded window at its centre and eight-panelled doors on either side, each set within a broad architrave. A mid-19th century orangery wing, forming a convex quarter-circle on plan, extends to the right. This wing has large segmental-headed casements and glazed doors, along with Gothick windows with two-light casements, each light having an arched head. The interior retains much original restrained decoration, including an elliptical stone staircase hall with a cantilevered stair. Original features such as six-panelled doors, panelled reveals and window shutters remain. A single-storey wing contains an oak fireplace surround carved with the date "M.C. 1680" in a style imitating a date fifty years earlier. A section of mid-16th century linenfold panelling with a central carved figure and achievement has also been incorporated, both introduced in the mid-20th century. The house is associated with the distinguished Broke family, notably Admiral Sir Philip Broke (d.1841), who was victorious in the battle between the Shannon and the Chesapeake.