Screen Walls at Nerquis Hall Estate

These screen walls form a castellated Gothic gateway and associated walls, built in the late 18th century, likely before 1797, by John Giffard. They provide access to a service court within the Nerquis Hall Estate. The gateway is constructed of sandstone ashlar on a narrow plinth, and is symmetrical, featuring an advanced central entrance with a large four-centred chamfered arch. Above the arch is a key stone carved with a sculpted head of Christ, and a returned, moulded label. Sculpted relief plaques flank the arch, and a crenellated parapet sits above. Short sections of flanking wall, also crenellated, step down to lead to large flanking drum towers. These towers have three string courses, the upper being larger and simply moulded, and the lower continuing onto the connecting wall sections. They feature central blind quatrefoils and flanking blind dumb-bell-shaped gun-loops.

To the south of the eastern tower, a contemporary section of ashlar walling is advanced and slightly concave in profile, with canted returns, and a crenellated parapet matching the gateway. Three niches with depressed-arched heads and moulded labels are incorporated, each stopped with a carved head, and each with a blind quatrefoil above. These niches and quatrefoils are painted to imitate windows with intersecting tracery and leaded panes. A further section of similar walling adjoins this and connects with the main house to the east; this was moved to its present location in the mid-1960s from its original position to the west of the house.

Behind the screen wall, and adjoining the house to the east, is the surviving ground-floor section of the Jacobethan east wing of the house, contemporary with the gateway. This section currently serves as the kitchen and service wing, with a flat roof and moulded parapet. The east face features an off-centre entrance with a deeply recessed late 19th-century door and a two-part leaded light above, flanked by recessed leaded cross-windows. The south face contains two six-light mullioned and transomed windows, connected to that of the main house by a moulded label-course. Adjoining this to the south, a tall rubble garden wall extends around in three planes to the east, topped with plain stone capping. A slate-roofed brick and rubble lean-to is attached to the rear of this wall; it was formerly a privy-block. In the centre of the southwest-facing returned section of the garden wall is a contemporary Gothic entrance with a Tudor-arched head, returned moulded label, chamfered reveals, and voussoirs. The west return of the garden wall is constructed of brick and is staggered in three sloped stages, featuring a modern opening in the centre, before continuing in two staggered stages to its termination.

The gateway and associated walls, along with the surviving section of the east wing, represent the remaining vestiges of John Giffard's work from the 1790s.