Black Hall

Black Hall is a country house built circa 1820s, possibly by R Brown of London for Hubert Cornish on the site of an earlier house. It was extended in 1881 for Frederick James Cornish Bowden. The building is constructed of stuccoed stone rubble, with the front and right-hand side finished in roughcast and lined out. It has a hipped roof behind the parapet and rendered stacks. A tent-shaped cupola with a finial projects to the right of centre.

The house is square on plan, facing south, with three rooms in depth comprising two principal front rooms and a central entrance hall and passage leading to the stairwell, positioned left of centre. Small rooms flank the stairwell, with two larger rooms at the back set at a slightly higher floor level to accommodate the kitchen and bakehouse in the basement below. The basement is accessed externally from the rear where the ground slopes significantly lower, and includes servants' hall to the right and cellars beneath the front rooms housing the dairy and other storage. In 1881 the house was extended on the left (west) side, set back from the front, providing what were probably servants' rooms with their own staircase.

The exterior is two storeys with basement and attic windows at the side only. The south front is symmetrical with five windows and features a pair of giant pilasters at either end rising to two-thirds height, with a Doric entablature above. Two smaller pilasters support the main cornice, which breaks forward over the larger pilasters; the blocking course rises at the centre with a rectangular panel. The windows are large early 19th-century 12-pane sashes with plain cills. A wide central doorway contains a flush-panelled and reeded glazed door with side lights, margin lights above, and a rectangular overlight topped by a cast-iron grille decorated with an anthelion motif. The original porch has been replaced in the 20th century by an open porch with two pairs of Doric columns supporting an entablature.

The right-hand (east) return is two storeys and attic, symmetrically composed with three windows disposed towards the right (back), all 19th-century 12-pane sashes. Attic windows are smaller 6-pane sashes. The ground floor left has a 19th-century glazed garden door. The corners have giant pilasters, paired to the left as at the front, with a wide band at first-floor cill level. The rear elevation is two storeys and basement, not quite symmetrical as the ground slopes to the left and the first-floor right-hand windows sit at a higher level than the left. First and second floor windows are 19th-century 12-pane sashes; basement sashes have 20 panes.

The 1881 addition on the left (west) side, set back from the front, is built of yellow brick with a corbelled brick eaves cornice and hipped slate roof with lead rolls and finials. It has an asymmetrical arrangement of sash windows and an oriel with a step hipped roof and finial.

The entrance hall and passage has an egg and dart cornice with coving to a scrolled ceiling border. An elliptical arch with groin vault closes the end of the passage, featuring an egg and dart archivolt with key motif and fluted pilasters. The passage leads to a very fine stairwell, almost oval on plan. The geometric staircase has stick balusters and a moulded mahogany handrail wreathed over the curtail with shaped tread ends. The first stage of the stairwell has round-headed niches with egg and dart mouldings. The stairwell features an elliptical vault with moulded ribs and a pretty shallow domed lantern with an acanthus-leaf boss. The entablature of the dome has an anthelion frieze, egg and dart cornice, and key-motif soffit frieze. Most original interior joinery survives, including mahogany 6-panel doors.

The drawing room to the front left has a fine cornice with deep-relief palmettes, a ceiling border with leaves and flowers, and a centrepiece with palmettes and large swirling acanthus leaves. It contains a white marble chimneypiece with slender detached Ionic columns and intact panelled window shutters. The dining room to the front right has a Victorian moulded plaster ceiling and a Victorian local grey marble chimneypiece. The back room to the left (morning room) has a moulded plaster cornice with anthelion, egg and dart, and bead and reel mouldings, with a centrepiece featuring acanthus leaves; panelled window shutters are intact. First-floor rooms have coved ceilings and moulded cornices. The basement kitchen is complete with two large fireplaces and cupboards.

From the mid-17th century Black Hall was the seat of the Fowells of Fowellscombe, whose main seat was in Ugborough parish and is now in ruins. In 1815 Black Hall was sold to Hubert Cornish, who built the present house, landscaped the grounds, and constructed the small estate village of Avon Wick. Estate cottages, houses, and lodges are also included in the heritage listing.