Biggin Hall

BIGGIN HALL

Country house with medieval origins. The centre range dates to around 1700, the entrance front and pavilions to the mid-18th century, and flanking wings to the garden front and domestic offices to the mid-19th century. Between around 1911 and 1938, the house underwent significant remodelling and extension to the garden front and first floor ranges between the pavilions, undertaken by H. Biddulph Pinchard in 1911 and with interior remodelling around 1938 by the Hon. Claude Yorke for the Watts-Russell family.

The building is constructed of limestone and lias ashlar with stone slate and lead roofs. It is a double-pile structure of 2 storeys with attic and basement.

The entrance front comprises 13 bays. The central 5 bays feature a portico with a pediment supported on 4 giant Ionic columns. Behind each fluted column sits a second column with a corresponding pilaster at each end of the centre range, supporting a continuation of the entablature. The rear wall of the portico contains sash windows with plain surrounds. A central 6-panelled door with an arch-head fanlight, moulded stone surround and keyblock forms the principal entrance. The return walls of the portico contain arch-head niches. Behind the parapet, a mansard roof contains 2 pediment-topped dormers, with 4 central ashlar stacks.

The flanking 3 bays, originally single storey with basement, have sash windows with moulded stone surrounds and cornices. Basement windows are squared sashes with plain surrounds. A flat roof to the ground floor supports a set-back first floor range of circa 1911, executed in similar style. The flanking pavilions display Venetian windows at ground floor level and similar tripartite windows with centre pediments at first floor. Basement windows are tripartite. Each pavilion is topped by a pediment with dentilled cornice matching the central portico. A recessed band runs below all ground floor windows. Ashlar stacks rise at the ridge. The side elevations consist of partitions with 3-window ranges of sash windows with plain surrounds, some now blind.

The garden front to the rear contains 15 bays. The centre 5 bays of the original house feature a central part-glazed door with a circa 1911 shell hood. Sash windows with glazing bars have plain ashlar surrounds with keyblocks. Small 2-stage buttresses flank left and right. Rusticated quoins and a dentilled cornice complete the composition. A 19th-century mansard roof displays a central pediment of circa 1911 with flanking pediment-topped dormers. Return walls of the centre range contain 2-window ranges of sash windows, some blind and some retaining early 18th-century glazing bars. The flanking 3 bays, remodelled in 1911, have similar sash windows with limestone ashlar dressings and keyblocks. The mid-19th-century flanking 2 bays, also remodelled in 1911 to match, break forward as wings with pediments. Raised bands between floors and limestone ashlar dressings mark the corners. Central and flanking pediments carry plasterwork decoration. Attached to the far left is a mid-19th-century, 2-storey domestic office range.

Interior features include an entrance hall at the centre of the entrance front, remodelled in 1911 when the staircase was removed. The front door and a corresponding arch-head doorway opposite are flanked by detached columns and pilasters. The drawing room to the left of the entrance retains 18th-century six-panel doors, with doorcases and cornice featuring oakleaves, probably dating to circa 1938, and an 18th-century style fireplace.

The sitting room in the far left pavilion contains a late 18th or early 19th-century marble fireplace with a frieze depicting a pastoral scene, a late 18th-century cornice, and a Rococo-style ceiling. Behind this room lies an 18th-century staircase with 3 thin turned balusters per tread.

The library, to the right of the entrance and originally the dining room, was remodelled in 1911. A circa 1911 staircase stands to the right of the library. The dining room in the far right pavilion, originally the kitchen, was remodelled in 1938. The morning room and study occupy the centre range of the garden front, both probably remodelled circa 1911: the morning room features a bolection moulded fire surround and the study has an arch-head niche. Internal alterations of 1911 mean that some first floor windows no longer correspond with openings.

Historically, the Manor of Biggin was originally held by the Abbots of Peterborough. At the Dissolution, it passed to Katherine Parr and then to the Russell family. By 1688 it had come to the Marquess of Powis, who sold it to James Joye in 1724. The Joye family were probably responsible for the entrance front. Jesse Watts-Russell purchased the estate in 1822, and the house remains in the family's ownership.