Marwell Hall

Marwell Hall is a medium-sized country house, originally an episcopal manor house dating back to the 14th century. It was remodelled in 1551 for Sir Henry Seymour and again in 1816 for Sir William Long. The house is constructed of stone and brick, rendered with stone dressings, and has old plain tile roofs.

It is a long building of six bays, two rooms deep, oriented on a north-south axis. The west front features two storeys and an attic. The end bays are slightly projecting and gabled, with full-height diagonal buttresses at the corners, topped by finials. A projecting single-story porch with four-centred arches is located to the south of the centre. The porch has a parapet clasping the buttresses with finials, a vaulted ceiling, and a glazed screen with an entrance door.

To the north of the porch is a full-height Great Hall with two large, fifteen-light, four-mullion, two-transom windows separated by a buttress. On the south side, a slightly projecting bay impinges on the porch, incorporating a mezzanine floor, and features eight-light mullioned and transomed windows on each floor. The central part of the house has a cusped cornice and a battelemented parapet. The gabled end bays have twelve-light mullioned and transomed windows on the lower floors, and three-light mullioned windows in the gable, all with dripstones. All windows have leaded lights. A single-storey 19th-century Gothic billiards room is located to the north.

The east, garden front is eight bays wide, with a projecting central four-bay section of three storeys, and two-storey and attic bays at each end. The central portion, dating to 1816, has corner turrets with false stair lights rising above a parapet to ogee finials. The ground floor windows are tall, with geometrical tracery in pointed heads, and a pair of narrow pointed sashes below. A sill-level string marks the first floor. Second-floor windows are two-light casements in four-centred arch openings, above a cornice and battlements. Each end gabled bay features a full-height corner buttress with a finial, with eight-light mullioned and transomed windows on the lower floor, and three-light mullioned windows above. An inner bay features cross windows. All windows have leading and dripstones. The north and south ends are double-gabled with two storeys and an attic. Tall, three-shafted, rendered and octagonal moulded brick stacks are located at the gable ends.

The interior is largely of 1817 construction, with the exception of an early 18th-century staircase at the north end of the hall. Above the hall and staircase is a roof of the late 14th century, possibly with base cruck trusses, an aisle plate, arched braces to an arcade plate, and common rafters. The arcade braces meet at the bay midpoint. A common rafter roof sits above the arcade plate, with curved braces from the arcade plate to the collar. Some spans have bays of 5.5m. The hall fireplace includes a stone panel with the Royal Arms. An early 17th-century fireplace with a carved overmantel and fluted pilasters can be found in the library.