Esclusham Hall

Esclusham Hall is a largely 17th-century manor house, with later additions and alterations. The external appearance is of painted brick, with rubble in the gable ends, and some surviving timber-framing in the rear wall. The roof is slate-covered. The main range is accompanied by an advanced west cross wing, and a further wing was added to the east. Stacks are located to the rear, in the front wall corner, and along the west cross wing's side walls. A doorway is situated towards the right of the main range; it features a studded door with strap hinges set within a moulded stone architrave, bearing the date 1677 and the initials T over R.E. Three-light casement windows, replacements in earlier openings (one with a steep, single-ring cambered head), are present on the ground floor. Two-light, small-paned casements are found in gabled dormers featuring expressed bargeboards and braced pendant finials. The right-hand wing has a steep single-ring head window with a blocked doorway beside it, and two-light casements in its gable end. Stone stacks have dentilled brick shafts. The lateral stack of the main hall range is similarly constructed, with well-coursed and squared stone work finished with a moulded cornice and a dentilled brick shaft.

The building’s plan is based on a hall with opposed entrances at its east end, a single bay "low" end to the right, and a "high" end to the left, encompassing a single room within the original building line, and an advanced wing of later date. Square-panelled timber framing appears in partition walls at each end of the hall, and in the south wall of the room at its "high" end. The hall contains a rear wall fireplace with a rough bressumer, along with two chamfered lateral beams with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. Paired chamfered arched-headed doorways (one now blocked) are in the partition wall at the lower end of the hall, below the opposed entrances, and a third doorway provides access to a secondary staircase. The main staircase, dating from 1677, is built against the partition wall at the hall’s high end and includes shaped pierced balusters, a moulded closed string, and hand-rail, as well as square newels with shaped finials. Upstairs, the original central truss of the open hall is visible; it features a steeply cambered and chamfered tie beam supported by brackets (said to be from a base cruck), with raking braces. The partition trusses have cambered tie-beams with queen posts, and wind-braces are visible over the "low" end.