The Hall

THE HALL

House, built around 1570 for Sir Christopher Wandesford, with alterations made in the early 18th century and 19th century. The building is constructed of rubblestone, ashlar and red brick, with some rendered sections, and is roofed in Welsh slate. It is a complex structure, part two storeys with attics featuring a very tall first-floor piano nobile, and part three storeys. The roof and eaves line is continuous throughout.

The east front presents six bays with stone quoins. A central board door set under a four-centred arch is flanked to its left by three 16-pane sashes and a small side-sliding sash with glazing bars. To the right are a three-light 24-pane side-sliding sash and two 16-pane sashes. The first floor contains four left-hand bays of the piano nobile with tall 18-pane sashes, whilst the two right-hand bays of three storeys have 16-pane sashes with 8-pane side-sliding sashes above them. Two gabled dormers with side-sliding sashes project from the roof. There is an end stack to the right and two stacks at the ridge. To the left stands a parapeted gable with moulded coping and stone finials at its base.

The south return (left side) has two bays, the right-hand one being wider and gabled. A side-sliding sash set in a recessed and chamfered opening lights the ground floor to the left, with a 16-pane sash to the right. Above are two 18-pane sashes matching those on the east front. A moulded string course runs below the gable, which contains a side-sliding sash with glazing bars and vestiges of an earlier opening above.

The west front features stone quoins. The right-hand gabled bay contains three-light stone mullion windows on both ground and first floors, with a three-light chamfered mullion and transom window in the gable above. This bay has a parapeted gable with stone finial to the left and moulded coping. The left-hand gabled bay has a 20th-century half-glazed door to the left with a three-light casement to its right and a small stone mullion two-light window at the centre. The first floor displays a central wooden mullion and transom window, a two-light stone mullion window to its right, and remains of a blocked original three-light mullion and transom window to its left. Above is a large four-light wooden mullion and transom window. The gable above is parapeted, probably rebuilt in the 19th century. On the right return of this cross wing at first-floor level is a corbelled wall set diagonally to the corner with a lead roof. Between these points is a full-height rendered embattled parapeted 19th-century addition of little architectural interest. Behind this addition, at first-floor level, can be seen a large corbelled external stack with two shafts to the right; inside, remains of corbels of a similar stack are visible to the left. Four-centred arched stone doorways open to the inside returns of the cross wings. The brick service wing to the north features two and three-light stone mullion windows on each floor.

The interior of the south-west cross wing contains a framed newel staircase extending to the second floor. On the first floor, the south drawing room retains a complete set of late 16th-century panelling, each panel framed by fluted Doric pilasters with carved archivolts above, interspersed occasionally with full-height fluted pilasters. An early 18th-century bolection-moulded fire surround is set within an elaborate 17th-century panelled overmantel featuring a dogtooth motif and flanking fluted pilasters. The central panel displays a large coat of arms of the Earls of Huntingdon with rampant lions and a helmet above. A ribbed plaster ceiling with pendants and coats of arms of the Wandesford and Bowes families is inscribed with a frieze containing arches, shells, lions and the initials C E, representing Sir Christopher Wandesford and Elizabeth Bowes, dated 1590. The panelling has been reset, but the ceiling is original. Adjacent is the smoking room with an early 18th-century eared architraved fire surround and consoled mantelpiece, accompanied by a panelled overmantel of the same period. The remaining wall panelling is 17th-century in date. Above is a large heavy wooden early 18th-century cornice. Further north is a bedroom containing a large early 18th-century glass-fronted cupboard with an original round-arched sash set in a timber architrave with tall keystone. In the attic at the north end is a short length of another plaster frieze, similar to that in the south drawing room. The ground floor contains several four-centred arched stone doorcases.

Sir Christopher Wandesford (1592–1640) was an Member of Parliament, serving in 1621 and 1622 as Master of the Rolls in Ireland, was sworn of the Privy Council in 1633, and became Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1640. His second son, Christopher, was created a Baronet in 1662. The house remains in the ownership of the Wandesford family.