Fawsley Hall

FAWSLEY HALL

Country house of early 16th-century origin, substantially remodelled in successive phases. The north range was built in 1732, attributed to Francis Smith. Thomas Cundy remodelled the house in 1815, and Anthony Salvin undertook major alterations in the mid-19th century, raising the structure and adding a south-east wing built 1867-8. The building is constructed of coursed squared ironstone with limestone dressings, a tiled roof, and brick ridge, lateral and end stacks. The plan is courtyard-based, partially open to the north.

The Great Hall forms the principal front, a 5-window range dominated by a tall 2-storey bay window to the right of centre. This bay is half-octagonal in plan, with mullion and transom Tudor-arched windows featuring tracery heads with miniature buttresses and brattishing to the transoms. The pattern continues above the eaves as a complete octagon with 2-light arch-mullion windows. A coat of arms with hood mould sits below the central window, with a battlemented parapet to the left of the bay. The main wall carries 3-light arch-mullion windows set high and divided by offset buttresses, with a similar window to the right. The rear elevation shows comparable windows divided by buttresses, and a large rear lateral stack of dressed ironstone finished in 19th-century brick. A fine service door with moulded Tudor arch and carved spandrels breaks the rear wall.

To left and right of the hall range stand large 19th-century Tudor style wings with grey sandstone dressings. The surviving early 16th-century kitchen range to the south rises 2 to 3 storeys beneath gabled old tile roofs, with brick lateral and ridge stacks. Fenestration is irregular, comprising 1, 2, and 3-light arch-mullion windows. A chamfered Tudor-arch door with hood mould stands to the left. A slightly later 16th-century projecting wing to the right features similar windows and a fine 2-storey oriel with battlemented parapet flanked by offset buttresses and a large lateral stack on corbels. Further to the right rises a 3-storey gabled bay with comparable 1 and 3-light arch-mullion windows and a door. The courtyard elevation displays similar 2-light windows and a moulded Tudor-arch doorway retaining a 16th/17th-century plank door.

The early 16th-century Brewhouse range to the west presents an irregular 5-window front of similar 2 and 3-light windows and a central chamfered doorway. An overlight above carries a chamfered stone surround with a 3-light wood-mullion window. A large rear lateral stack to the courtyard contains an 18th-century brick flue. The north gable wall is distinguished by a fine first-floor oriel with arch-mullion and transom lights and flanking side pieces of 2 similar lights. A 1-light arch-mullion window occupies the gable above, with a similar 2-light window below left of centre.

The interior contains exceptional features. The Great Hall houses an impressive stone fireplace with a quatrefoil frieze, a foliage frieze above, and castellated cresting; a blocked window lies above. The bay window retains panelled jambs and a fan vault with a large Tudor Rose central boss. The kitchens preserve huge hollow-chamfered fireplaces back-to-back, with a passage ending on round pillars with octagonal bases and chamfered 4-centred arches. Stone bread cupboards and stone-flagged floors survive. Adjoining rooms feature moulded and chamfered cross-beamed ceilings on the ground and first floors, with 4-centred arch fireplaces. A large second-floor room displays an arched brace collar truss roof. An adjacent parlour features a barrel-vaulted ceiling with thin quatred moulded beams. The room behind the oriel to the south carries a similar barrel-vaulted ceiling, a huge moulded cornice, a close-studded west wall, and a 4-centred moulded arch fireplace. A mid-17th-century staircase from Ashley Park, Surrey (now demolished) has been recently installed and rearranged within the house. The Salvin wings are weatherproof but gutted; the south-east wing retains portions of Elizabethan-style plaster ceilings to the ground-floor state rooms.

Fawsley Hall was built initially in the early 16th century in various stages, chiefly by Sir Edmund Knightley. It remained the seat of the Knightleys until World War II. The building became a timber factory in the 1960s, during which period the Great Hall lost its original roof. The kitchen and Brewhouse ranges have been recently restored by the present owner.