Netherton Hall Including Terraces To North, South, And West

Netherton Hall is a mansion built by Sir Edmund Prideaux, dated 1607, though parts may be older. It was rebuilt from a ruinous state between 1836 and 1844 by architect J. Goldsworthy, and modernised in 1902. The building is now used as a school.

The house is constructed of plastered stone rubble with Beerstone ashlar dressings. The rear elevation, facing east, shows exposed local stone rubble with some 19th-century brick dressings. Stone stacks predominate, mostly with Beerstone ashlar chimneyshafts featuring soffit-moulded coping, and the roof is slate.

The building follows an irregular courtyard plan and is sited on a flat terrace on a gentle hillslope. The main block faces west-north-west. It contains two principal rooms, one either side of a cross passage: the smaller south room is a parlour and the larger north room is the great hall, both heated by rear lateral stacks. A two-storey porch appears central to the front doorway. A library (formerly a parlour) crosswing projects forward at right angles in front of the north end of the front elevation. The library/parlour has an outer lateral stack, and the main stair is positioned between the library/parlour and the hall. The cross passage leads back to a large heated lobby in the south wing, behind which a stair turret projects into a small courtyard that functions essentially as a light well. The south, north, and east wings house mostly service rooms, each heated by axial or lateral stacks. The main front block and library/parlour crosswing appear to be original; another matching crosswing at the south side is thought to have been demolished in the 19th century. The courtyard was likely larger originally. The house is mostly two storeys with some parts three storeys and a cellar beneath the south end of the front block.

The main block displays a symmetrical 2:1:2 window arrangement of Beerstone ovolo-moulded mullion-and-transom windows with continuous hoodmoulds on both floors. The two-storey porch features a Tudor arch with moulded surround; the passage front and back doorways are similar. Above the porch sits a lead coat of arms set on a wooden board within a Beerstone frame. The parapet carries around the porch, and the gable here is a round arch on shoulders carved as a shell and inscribed with the date 1607. Similar fenestration appears on the north and south sides, though less regularly arranged. The north side includes two tall six-light windows with two transoms, one at the end of the hall. The south end of the main block includes a 19th-century Beerstone canted oriel window. The roofs have shouldered gables with coping, some with ball finials. The front of the library/parlour crosswing features stucco quoins; the rear includes 19th-century timber casements. All windows contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. At the rear, one gable displays a carved plaque recording the 1836-44 renovation by Sir Edward Sanders Prideaux. A large kitchen stack bears a bell attached beneath a gabled head.

The interior shows mostly 19th-century details in Tudor and Jacobean style. The main rooms are panelled, and many have ornamental plaster friezes in Elizabethan style. The main stair in the library/parlour crosswing is a large open hall stair with twisted balusters; other stairs have turned balusters. Some original Tudor arch Beerstone fireplaces remain exposed; some 19th-century fireplaces have reused or adapted 17th-century examples, while others are new in the same style. Exposed carpentry in the present school kitchen/dining room includes beams with deep chamfers and scroll stops. Other early carpentry is believed to survive; evidence of a gallery in the main hall was reportedly discovered during repair work.

Surrounding the house are a series of 19th-century terraces revetted with stone rubble and topped with Beerstone coping. The south terrace is the most ornate, flanked by tall walls divided into bays and including gateways with square-section Beerstone ashlar posts. The front end is semi-circular with a Beerstone balustrade of large vase-shaped balusters set diagonally. Netherton Hall forms part of an attractive group of listed buildings comprising the hamlet of Farway.