Marl Hall including terrace at front

Marl Hall

A Georgian-style former convalescent home of two storeys and attic, built in coursed freestone on a pebble-dashed plinth with a steep slate roof on a stone cornice. Four tall brick chimney stacks with round-headed panels are situated behind on the left side and on the left-hand wing. Early 20th-century rainwater goods have been retained from the convalescent home conversion.

The west entrance front comprises seven bays in the main range with projecting hipped wings at both ends of two bays and three storeys. The central entrance features a moulded freestone surround of lighter brown stone with a bead-and-reel border and pediment, containing double panel doors beneath a small-pane overlight and within panelled reveals. Windows throughout are 15-pane hornless sashes. On the eaves is a modern steel fence, behind which are two-light casement windows to gabled dormers. A lean-to veranda spans the main range on cast iron posts supporting a moulded wooden beam with glazed roof. The wings both contain 15-pane sash windows to ground and first floors. The left-hand (north) wing retains 9-pane sashes on the second floor. The right-hand (south) wing has replacement windows with plain glass in the left bay and a 4-pane sash window in the right bay. The return facing the main front shows in the right-hand (south) wing a ground-floor half-glazed door in a former window opening, with the upper 6-pane sash now serving as the overlight, a 15-pane sash to the first floor, and a two-light second-floor window opening to a balcony across the angle of wing and main range. The return of the left-hand (north) wing has 15-pane and 9-pane sashes similar to the front.

The left-hand (north) wing is brick in its side wall and of 18th-century fabric, except for the upper storey which has been rebuilt. Openings are grouped as one plus three to the left and centre, all beneath flat arches. Windows are 15-pane sashes to ground and first floors and 9-pane to the second floor, except for inserted escape doors to the left end on the first and second floors. The first-floor escape door retains the original 6-pane upper sash as an overlight. The rear of the north wing is rubble stone. On its right side are 15-pane and 9-pane sashes to the first and second floors, while on the ground floor a door has been inserted retaining an original 6-pane upper sash as the overlight. On its left side is a brick projection with similar sash windows.

The south wing is shorter than the north wing. Its side wall is whitened rubble stone to ground and first floor, with brick to the second floor. It has small replacement first and second-floor windows. Behind it is a hipped two-and-a-half-storey lean-to with a lower two-storey projection facing the yard, both with replacement glazing. Further behind is a lower two-and-a-half-storey gabled two-window wing with replacement windows. An early 20th-century one-storey parallel range of rubble stone with larger quoins continues around the rear as a lean-to, featuring small-pane casements in mullioned freestone surrounds.

The rear of the main range is rubble stone with light-brown freestone quoins, dressings and moulded cornice similar to the front. A central half-glazed panel door beneath a segmental head with mullioned overlight and leaded glazing is flanked by double-transomed two-light windows, below a six-light mullioned first-floor window, all with leaded glazing. Two superimposed flat-roof dormers contain two-light and six-light windows. Set back on the right is a single bay with 15-pane sash windows and a two-light flat-roof dormer. To the right and left are rear wings spanned by a coped dwarf wall and gateway with ball finials, enclosing a small rear courtyard.

On the left side of the rear entrance is a gabled rear wing of rubble stone with tooled-stone quoins and dressings and some freestone dressings. It has three-light mullioned windows with steel-framed casements, and in its side wall facing the main rear entrance is a reduced external stack. In its south roof slope is a large flat-roof dormer. On the right side of the back entrance is a three-storey T-shaped rear wing of rubble stone with rock-faced and freestone dressings and moulded cornice similar to the main range. It has leaded glazing to windows in stone surrounds, including four-light windows in the rear wall, and added escape stairs on the north side. To the north of this wing are 15-pane and 9-pane sash windows in the main range.

In front of the main range and north wing is a raised terrace, shown on the 1890 Ordnance Survey. It comprises a buttressed retaining wall of coursed rock-faced stone and moulded coping, with a convex arc of stone steps in the centre. At the right-hand end the wall returns and abuts the main range. At the left end the wall returns into the bank opposite the end of the north wing.

Interior

The entrance hall is finished with scribed plaster and contains a rear lateral fireplace with a segmental corbelled arch below a raked hood. To its right is a wide Tudor arch with foliage spandrels leading to the stairway, with a moulded string course above. The ceiling has two cross beams. Doorways to the left and right have wooden surrounds and segmental pediments, with panelled reveals and Arts-and-Crafts-influenced half-glazed doors with leaded lights.

The full-height dog-leg stair features Jacobean-style fretwork balusters, square newels and retains some moulded finials. At the base of the stair on the left-hand side is a wooden segmental arch to a half-glazed door with side panels.