Hucclecote Court

Hucclecote Court is a large house, dating from around 1775, built for Sir William Strachan, Baronet, with part of the cost paid by Samuel Hayward, the landowner. The building was converted to a hotel in the mid-20th century and subsequently to offices, with renovations for this conversion undertaken around 1990.

The house is constructed of brick, painted white on the front elevation and stuccoed at the rear, with stone details and gabled and hipped slate roofs with brick stacks. The plan comprises a central double-depth block with single-depth flanking wings and an extension to the east wing. The building stands two storeys tall with a semi-basement and attic over the central block.

The front elevation is symmetrical except for an extension to the left, with the gabled central block projecting slightly beyond the matching wings. A raised stone band runs at first-floor level across the centre and wings, and a further raised stone band appears at attic-floor level on the central block. The gable of the central block was originally masked by a crowning cornice, now indicated by a raised band; a pediment has been removed, though the stone-framed oculus in the former tympanum remains in the apex of the gable. The gable was remodelled in the late 20th century with plain pedestals crowned by balls added at the corners. The wings have coped parapets. A landing to the central entrance doorway is approached by a flight of steps with quarter landings on each side. In the centre of the front wall of the landing base is a semicircular arched opening framed by the tops of flanking pilasters and a Gibbs surround, infilled by an iron grille. On each side of this opening is a decorative framed stone roundel. A simple wrought-iron balustrade runs to the steps and landing. The entrance doorway is framed in a stone doorcase with moulded architraves and a moulded cornice and pediment on consoles at each end; the present doors are 20th-century panelled double doors. On each side of the doorway is a sash, and three shorter sashes appear on the first floor. In the centre of the front of each wing is a basement sash, a ground-floor sash, and a shorter first-floor sash, all with glazing bars (3x4 panes) in openings with projecting stone sills. The recessed extension to the left-hand wing features a semicircular arched sash with Gothic glazing bars in the upper sash frame on the ground floor, and a sash with glazing bars (3x4 panes) on the first floor, both in openings with projecting stone sills.

On the rear or garden front, a 20th-century single-storey addition sits in the angle to the left of the projecting gabled end of the central block. The projection of the central block has a raised stone band at first-floor level and, in the centre of its front, a single-storey canted bay with a parapet crowned by a moulded cornice with blocking course. A doorway at ground-floor level in the front of the bay, approached by a straight flight of stone steps, features a 20th-century panel door and a late 18th-century fanlight of elaborate Gothic pattern. On each canted side of the bay is a late 19th-century sash with a central vertical glazing bar. The first floor of the central block has two sashes, and the first floor of each wing and the extension to the east wing have similar sashes, all with glazing bars (3x4 panes). In the gable of the central block is a pair of small 19th-century sashes with central vertical glazing bars.

The interior of the central block includes the front entrance hall with a bracketed cornice, containing an elongated geometrical staircase rising to the attic with open string, stick balusters and swept handrail. The former saloon to the rear of the hall has 18th-century moulded doorcases, six-panel doors, moulded skirting, moulded dado rail, and a marble chimney-piece with flanking pilasters carved with drops and lintel entablature with a central block sculpted with cupids playing with a lion in bas-relief. The former dining room on the ground floor of the left wing has an arched alcove and panelled doors.