The Great House

The Great House

A former manor house, now a residence, dating from the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries. The building combines close-studded timber-framing with blue lias and sandstone quoins, brick construction, and a blue lias plinth running to all parts. Traces of limewash survive on the brick and stone sections. The roof is laid with stone slate and red tile. The house is arranged in a U-shaped plan.

The central block is close-studded timber-framed and dates to the late 16th century. The south wing is late 16th to early 17th century, while the north wing dates from the late 17th century. The north front displays two brick gables on the left with a projecting brick stack set off-centre to the right, with a wing extending back from the left-hand gable. To the right are two blue lias gables with a projecting stack at the centre and a projecting garderobe shoot from the right-hand wall. A close-studded timber-framed wing extends back at the rear right, and a south-facing gable end has been refaced in brick. The rear wall of the courtyard is close-studded timber-framed. A 20th-century lean-to greenhouse against the rear courtyard wall is of no special interest.

The main body rises to two storeys and attic, with a cellar beneath the west wing. The north (entrance) front contains four gables. Windows feature cross-lights with ovolo-moulded wooden mullions. The brick gable-ends are lit by cross windows with ovolo-moulded wooden mullions and transoms; ground floor windows have soldier-arched heads with a band above. On the first floor, three windows are present, the left and right with brick relieving arches, while the centre has a flat arch with bricks stepped down at the sides and a keystone at centre, with a band above stepped up over the relieving arches. Two-light windows lighting the attics have soldier-arched heads and stopped hoods. The blue lias gables to the right are lit by three and four-light ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned windows, including four-light windows with king mullions. Ground and first floor windows throughout have transoms, with continuous hoodmoulds running over all windows and continued around the projecting stack. A plank door with cover strips on the left sits within a flat-chamfered, Tudor-arched surround with carved spandrels and a hollow-chamfered hood with scroll stops.

The west front features one, two and three-light stone-mullioned windows with and without glazing bars lighting a blue lias gable on the left. The right side displays 19th-century twin-gabled close-studded timber-framing lit by three and four-light windows with ovolo-moulded mullions and transoms to ground and first floors. The south-facing gable-end, brick-faced, contains two-light stone-mullioned windows to the ground floor and a three-light 19th-century casement with transom to the first floor. Flat-chamfered stone-mullioned windows light the cellar. A close-studded timber-framed wall at the rear of the courtyard has a round-headed doorway (now blocked) with timber surround. An early studded-plank survives in the west wall of the brick east wing.

The roof features moulded limestone gable-end coping with kneelers, gable-ends and projecting stacks.

Interior

An open-well 17th-century staircase in the west wing has a closed string and turned balusters. The kitchen (in the west wing) contains deep chamfered beams with moulded stops. A Tudor-arched door with corner strips and Tudor-arched surround leads from the kitchen into the former through passage. Similar doors and door surrounds appear throughout the house.

Tie beams with moulded chamfers and run-out stops are found in the central room of the house (formerly panelled) beyond the corridor. The main room in the east wing has deep chamfered beams with pyramidal stops with bars. Main stairs in the south wing feature turned balusters and a closed string. A round-headed wooden archway with foliate carving in the spandrels and a central pendant stands at the bottom of the stairs, with a similar archway to the right providing access to the cellar beyond, and a narrow round-headed archway between them. Similar arches appear at the top of the stairs on the landing, continuing over access to the following flight. 17th-century panelling surrounds the stairwell. A blind arcade with carved foliate decorations sits within each archway on the second quarter landing, with access to a garderobe with a single-hole seat beyond.

Moulded plasterwork panels in the front right-hand first floor room have simple combed borders to each panel with fleur-de-lys motifs within (compare Great Sandpits, in the parish of Tirley). An oak-panelled room at the rear of the west wing contains tie beams with diamond stops with bars. A round-headed archway off the first landing has carved spandrels and scrollwork with fluted pilasters forming the jambs, providing entrance to a passage behind the east-facing wall of the central block. A fireplace with a flat-chamfered Tudor-arched surround appears in the attic.

Historical context

An estate centred on the Great House was owned by the Browne family in the 16th century (see monument in the chancel of Hasfield Church). In the 17th century the house was known as Hasfield House; in the 18th century it was called Pigeon House Farm; and from the mid-19th century onwards it has been known as the Great House.