Nerquis Hall

Nerquis Hall

Nerquis Hall is a symmetrical house built in 1638, as recorded on a date plaque with armorial bearings and the inscription DEUS DEDIT...IW. DONEC set above the ground floor window of the recessed central bay of the north front. The building is of considerable architectural interest, combining original 17th-century features with later 18th-century interiors of high quality.

The north-facing entrance front is a five-bay elevation dominated by coped gables with finials, the outer gables slightly larger than those flanking the recessed central bay. The entrance itself is set on the left return of this central bay, framed by an ovolo-moulded, stopped Tudor archway. The door is modern and boarded but retains original hinges. The central bay features 8-light mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights to the ground and first floors. Above these, a sequence of stepped windows with moulded labels rises to the gabled second floor, where the central bays contain 4 lights stepped to 3, then 1, whilst the outer bays are double-stepped in a 5, 3, 1 arrangement. Cross windows light the returns of the recessed entrance bay. A large central stack with moulded string-courses and capping rises prominently from the roof. Plain hoppers to the downpipes are dated 1817.

The south-facing rear elevation is asymmetrical, featuring four gables with 4-light stepped windows. The outer bays of the first floor have paired 6-light windows with adjacent single 6-light windows to the ground floor. The second bay from the left contains a late 18th-century garden door with open-pedimented stone entablature embellished with scrolled brackets. This is approached by four splayed steps (modern replacements) flanked by contemporary wrought iron decorative railings with scrolled foliate balusters and ball and urn finials. An arched doorway with a contemporary recessed 6-panel door and plain 3-light fan sits adjacent to the garden entrance. Two 2-light stair windows flank this feature. To the right on the ground floor is a further 6-light window, and the moulded plinth steps down at this point. A Tudor-arched cellar entrance with stepped access lies to the left of the garden door, featuring a 3-light central window with blind outer lights. A second cellar window of 2 lights lies to the right of the garden door, one light of which is blocked.

The west side is symmetrical, with an advanced central section consisting of two stacks flanking a central gable. A stepped window to the upper floor and a 6-light window to the first floor occupy the central gable. Single-light windows light the first floors of the flanking recessed bays. The ground floor shows evidence of blocked one-light windows in the outer recesses and a 6-light central window between the stacks. Hoppers dated 1822 are positioned in the angles.

The east side is asymmetrical, featuring a recessed gabled central bay with finials and a stepped window. Flanking end stacks—the kitchen stack to the left being larger and stepped—frame this bay. Three small central one-light windows light the first floor.

The interior contains significant features spanning from the original 17th-century build to later refinements. An internal porch features Gothick inner doors recycled from an early 19th-century glazed screen (itself removed in the 1960s), the doors grained timber with intersecting tracery above panels adorned with blind quatrefoils. The L-shaped hall has a north-facing bay at the dais end lit by 3 chamfered stopped cross-beams. An early 19th-century geometric floor tiles the space. A large fireplace from the Gothick phase dominates, featuring a 4-centred arch and blind traceried spandrels, pilasters and a frieze with heraldic shields. Twelve painted heraldic quarries, formerly in the Gothick porch and now resited in the hall windows, further enrich the space. At the dais end, three Jacobean double ovolo-moulded door cases with scroll stops mark entrances; the stairwell door case is original whilst the two parlour ones are 19th-century copies. All door cases feature carved brackets and pendentives to arched heads with raised geometric ornaments to the spandrels and small plain bosses to the voussoirs. The doors themselves are boarded with applied pilasters, brackets and pendentives, fitted with contemporary ironwork.

The northwest parlour represents one of the finest interior spaces, dating to circa 1725–1750, with the Greek key pattern possibly later. Large field panelling with shouldered surrounds rises above an alternately advanced and recessed dado with moulded rail and plinth; a similar cornice completes the wall treatment. The reverse of the entrance door is 6-panelled, raised and fielded; a matching blind door faces north. A black marble chimney-piece with depressed arched head, scrolled brackets and fluted key supports a classical landscape painting within a part-gilded, shouldered egg-and-dart moulded frame with scrolled pediment, urn finials and foliate swags. An applied key pattern surrounds the picture. Flanking the fireplace are two fine shell niches, shouldered with fluted and gilded pilasters and scrolled keys; the upper niches are heavily gadrooned and fitted with two tiers of edge-gilt shaped shelves. A contemporary pelmet over the window sports a scrolled pediment and key pattern, the latter motif also appearing on two boxed ceiling beams.

The southwest parlour, with a slightly higher ceiling than the northwest room, features a 3-bay geometric plaster ceiling enriched with interlocking squares and octagons decorated with floral sprigs in the Tudor manner. A Tudor-style fireplace, rebuilt in the 20th century, stands against the wall. Both northwest and southwest parlours possess fine secret-nailed oak floors.

Two further contemporary door cases occupy the service end of the hall, their details matching those of the main hall. That to the left of the fireplace features a contemporary door (formerly in two parts), originally serving the buttery. A contemporary door and door case access the cellar. The cellar itself is two-phase, partly brick-vaulted, and includes a water system fed by piped spring water into a stone cistern, the water exiting under the floor to supply the duck pond in the poultry court. At the east (service) end of the hall, an entrance leads to a service passage with kitchen and pantry off; the blocked former kitchen entrance retains a contemporary moulded and carved door case with ogival head terminating in a carved trefoil. A white marble chimney-piece, recycled from upstairs, features a timber lugged and carved surround with frieze and 3-tiered cornice.

A plain main stair of circa 1725–1750 ascends to the first floor. Single-flight with plain newels, panelled sides and pilasters in grained pine, it rises to the great chamber, originally C-shaped but latterly J-shaped following the removal of a closet partition. The chamber retains 18th-century raised and fielded panelling with moulded dado rail and a cornice contemporary with the partition removal. The chimney-piece and doors match those of the northwest parlour below. Additional Rococo chimney-pieces ornament the rooms off, that in the southwest room being the finest; all are fitted with later classical iron grates.

The second-floor gallery features a contemporary Tudor-arched stone fireplace with ovolo-moulded jambs and replaced lintel. Similar chimney-pieces occupy the outer rooms on the south side.