Litchborough Hall

Litchborough Hall

Country house on the Banbury Road at Litchborough, originally built in the 17th and 18th centuries and substantially remodelled and extended in 1838 by the architect George Moore in Tudor style for William Grant. Moore's design was exhibited at the Royal Academy.

The main house is built of ironstone ashlar and coursed squared ironstone with ironstone dressings, with a slate roof and stone end, ridge and lateral stacks. It follows a double-depth plan, rising to 2 storeys and attic with a 3-window range on the entrance front.

The entrance front features a central pair of glazed double-leaf doors with a hollow-chamfered Tudor-arched stone surround and carved spandrels, set within a gabled porch that contains a similar doorway and hood mould. The porch is flanked by 3-light hollow-chamfered stone mullion windows with hood moulds on the ground floor, and 2-light windows of the same character above on the first floor. A plinth runs across the front with hollow-chamfered string courses at first and second floor levels, and a tall stone-coped parapet pierced by 3 segmental-headed dormers topped with ball finials.

The garden front is more elaborate. Its centrepiece consists of a 4-bay section with 12-pane sash windows to the ground and first floors, each surrounded by chamfered stone with stone lintels and key-blocks, and hood moulds to the ground floor windows; a single long continuous hood mould ties the first floor windows together. This centre is flanked by gabled wings which project slightly forward; the right-hand wing is a late 19th-century addition. Both wings contain single-storey canted bay windows with plain stone-coped parapets displaying the Grant coat of arms, 2-light stone mullion and transom windows to the first floor, and 1-light gable windows with hood moulds. A plinth and string course at second floor level step above the first floor windows of the wings. Two segmental-headed gabled dormers top the centre section.

A 2-storey service wing projects forward to the left of the entrance front. Its ground floor has a central blank door and a first floor window, both with flat-arched heads and key-blocks, flanked by 3-light stone mullion and transom windows on the ground floor and 2-light chamfered stone mullion windows on the first floor, all with hood moulds. The wing has quoins and chamfered stone eaves.

A later cross wing extends further to the left, featuring a 3-light chamfered stone mullion window to the ground floor, a similar 2-light window to the first floor, and a 1-light window in the gable, all with hood moulds. This section has a chamfered plinth, a lateral stack to the left of the gable, and a stone-coped gable with kneelers and diagonal buttress to its left angle.

A single-storey link to the left connects the service wing to what was once a separate house, dating from the 17th century. This older range follows an L-plan and rises to 2 storeys and attic with a 2-window range. It is entered through an old plank door with fleur-de-lis hinges and a hollow-chamfered stone surround with a Tudor-arched head and carved spandrels depicting roses, topped by a hood mould. The ground floor windows include a 4-light ovolo-moulded stone mullion window in the centre and a 1-light window to the right with a chamfered stone surround. Above on the first floor are 3-light ovolo-moulded stone mullion windows with hood moulds, and similar 2-light windows light the gabled dormers above. The building displays quoins, stone-coped gables with kneelers, and square stone flues rising from stone end stacks. Old leaded casement windows survive at the rear.

The interior of the main house retains significant features. The hall contains a ribbed plaster ceiling and a bolection-moulded black marble fireplace. The main staircase, of mid-18th-century date, is an open well type with column-on-vase balusters, fluted Doric column newels, a dado, and a circular skylight. The drawing room displays a moulded cornice decorated with vine leaves and grapes and a Tudor ceiling rose. The dining room features a wood ribbed ceiling and a Jacobean style wood fireplace surround incorporating re-used Jacobean columns and panels.