Woolley Hall

Woolley Hall is a country house, now corporate headquarters, located at Littlewick Green on Bath Road (also known as Cherry Garden Lane). The building originated in the 1780s as a modest three-storey structure but was greatly expanded and refitted in 1891. The garden terrace and pergola walk were added in 1914 by the architect Thomas Mawson. The house is constructed of gault brick with a stone west entrance extension, featuring slate and lead roofs and an irregular plan.

EXTERIOR

The original 18th-century house survives as a three by five-bay structure of three storeys, most clearly visible in its north elevation. The north elevation presents a five-window range of one-over-one horned sashes, each window furnished with stone architraves. The lower two floors have windows with consoles beneath the upper string courses, and sill courses run continuously across all windows. The elevation is topped with a modillion eaves cornice and a central three-bay pediment.

The west elevation displays similar detailing to the 18th-century portion, with three windows eccentrically arranged on each of the upper two floors. Two chimney stacks are visible on this side. A single-storey stone-built reception hall of 1891 abuts the original ground floor on the west, featuring a semi-circular portico to the main entrance supported on six Roman Doric columns. The cornice is decorated with carved festoons and lions' heads in the metopes, set beneath a string course and blind balustraded parapet. A central pedimented keystone bears the date 1891. A canted bay window faces south, and a single six-over-six unhorned sash to the north replaces a blind window from 1940. The parapet continues around this section and returns into the north elevation where a French window opens. A two-storey extension abuts the south side of the 18th-century block, with irregular fenestration of one-over-one horned sashes, hipped roofs, and four chimney stacks.

The east elevation of the 18th-century block contains three eccentrically arranged windows with stone details similar to those on the west and north faces, except for stone neo-Jacobean mullioned and transomed windows at ground floor level. A two-storey bow window was added in 1891 with comparable detailing. A four-window range in two storeys to the south incorporates a single-storey canted bay window and a square bay at the angle with the south-east block.

The south elevation displays a four-window range of two storeys, each window with a moulded architrave, with a 1961 office extension abutting at the west end. The parapet is plain and the roof is hipped. The south-east block rises to two storeys, with two-window bays on the shorter north and south elevations and four windows on the south face.

INTERIOR

The entrance hall features large-framed panelling and a dado rail along the south and west walls and around the east doorway. The three principal doorways are double-hung and glazed with ten panels to each leaf, set within doorcases with floral jamb carvings and cornices adorned with pairs of cherubs resting on the cusp of twin festoons. Moulded and carved cornices run throughout, and the plaster ceiling displays deep moulded ribs with continuous floral motifs, repeated toward the base of a circular ribbed central dome.

The staircase hall to the east contains an open-well staircase with a closed moulded string, square newel posts (the lower one with a volute) topped with vase-of-flowers finials, and moulded handrails. The plaster ceiling consists of rectilinear ribs defining squares. A timber chimneypiece and a domed oval roof light complete the space.

The boardroom to the south, formerly the drawing room, features small-framed neo-Jacobean panelling with engaged pilasters carved with strapwork. A frieze of palmettes runs around the room, and the neo-Jacobean plaster ceiling displays shallow ribs forming interlocking squares, circles and semi-circles. A stone chimneypiece carved with Romulus and Remus in the frieze serves as the focal point.

The room immediately north of the boardroom displays large-framed plaster panelling in Adam style and a palmette frieze. The former chapel, facing the west elevation, has a deeply coffered plaster ceiling with coving on all four sides. The sanctuary area to the south retains more delicate but similar ceiling plasterwork.

An ante-room north of the chapel connects to the next room northward, which features large-framed plaster panelling in Adam style and a plaster ceiling with a lightly coffered ground from which ribs define Greek crosses with chamfered ends to the arms. A secondary staircase with turned newels and balusters and an open string provides additional vertical circulation. Further ground-floor rooms retain wall panelling from 1891.

The first-floor staircase landing has a two-bay arcade on the north side below a glazed screen upper wall marking the circulation for secondary bedrooms. The first floor is divided into two principal chambers with dressing rooms and other bedrooms, plainly decorated except for two rooms with plaster wall panelling and cornices. The second-floor bedrooms are all plain.

GARDEN FEATURES

The garden terrace, designed by Thomas Mawson in 1914, fronts the north and east elevations. It features a stone balustrade of turned balusters between square piers, each pier topped with a vase-of-flowers finial, and supporting a moulded balustrade above.

The pergola, also by Thomas Mawson in 1914, extends eastward from the south front of the south-east wing before turning north at a square open summerhouse. The main run comprises eleven Roman Doric columns supporting a timber entablature, faced by eleven pilasters on the rear wall. The north run consists of two similar columns. The pavement consists of rectangular panels of bricks laid in alternating bands, continuing from the garden terrace.