Walton Hall At The Open University

Walton Hall at The Open University is a small country house, now serving as the University Vice Chancellor's Office. Built around 1830 for Charles Pinfold, the building is stuccoed and painted, featuring a slate roof that is concealed by a parapet and topped with a small ogee-roofed bell turret at the rear. It has a modillion cornice and stands two storeys tall with three widely spaced bays, where the outer bays slightly project. The sash windows are set in architrave surrounds, with the lower ones located in arched recesses. The central bay features an upper tripartite sash window with an architrave surround and a segmental-shaped head above a modern panelled door, which is flanked by rectangular fanlight windows under a Doric portico supported by four columns. The portico includes an entablature, a triglyph frieze, a modillion cornice, and a blocking course, with three shallow stone steps leading up to it. The west front has five bays of sash windows, with the outer bays again slightly projecting. The north block is constructed of 18th-century red brick, with a hipped tile roof, hipped dormers, and two bays of sash windows, linked to the later main block by a two-window brick wing that has been altered. The interior of the 1830 block retains a contemporary screen in the entrance hall, along with a staircase, doors, fireplaces, and cornices.