Boksburg Hall

Boksburg Hall

A three-storey house with unpainted render and slate close-eaved roof with end stacks. The external chimney breast on the south end wall is of stone, with an attached rear shaft in red brick (2002 rebuilt above in brick). The north stack is similarly treated.

The west front has three windows with late 19th-century plate glass sashes. The ground floor features late 19th-century canted bays with moulded cornices. These bays were formerly sheltered under a glazed veranda on cast-iron columns with ornate brackets, which was removed in 2002. An arched doorway with radiating-bar fanlight and an early 20th-century nine-panel door occupy the centre.

The rear wall to the left is a windowless lower rubble stone outbuilding with a blocked coach entry on the left and blocked door and window on the right (already blocked in a late 19th-century photograph). A straight joint to the left indicates an added coal-room and tack-room at the north end, constructed under the continued roof. A conservatory to the right, which was a lean-to structure against a blank west wall, was removed as derelict in 2002.

The main house has a gabled two-storey short wing with a 20th-century window on each floor in the south end wall and a blocked door. A long outshut roof extends across the rear. The two-storey rear wall has a slight projection to the left bay with 16-pane sashes on each floor. A blocked door stands to the right. The main part features a 16-pane stair-window on each floor to the left (with brick heads and stone sills), a centre casement pair over a door, and a blocked door to the right. An addition to the south contains a single-storey outbuilding at right angles to the rear wall.

The outbuilding to the north has a lower rubble stone roof with a door to the stable and a brick cambered arch to the coach entry. Two small boarded loft lights are present, one above the coach entry and another slightly to the left. A straight joint marks the right side, with a brick-headed door to the tack-room. The north gable end of the addition has a loft door in the gable, a 12-pane sash to the tack-room on the left, and a door and boarded window to the coal-room on the right.

Interior

The entrance hall has a bay-windowed room on each side. The doorcases are painted with graining and thin reeding, with six-panel doors. The hall passage has a door with fanlight, probably inserted where an elliptical hall arch with fluted piers formerly stood. The left room contains a 19th-century painted timber fireplace imitating marble with an arched recess on each side, and panelling in the bay window. The right room is similarly appointed with a bay window and 19th-century fireplace.

Exposed during restoration, the ceilings display thin pine joists. The staircase to the rear centre has stick balusters and early 19th-century turned column newels with thin ramped rails and closed strings, forming a dog-leg with landings and relatively broad treads. Small shutters are present to the stair landing window.

The rear north-east room, formerly a dairy, retains two older beams and square joists, possibly of 18th-century date. The rear south-east room, within the south addition, contains a later 19th-century servants' stair. The single-storey rear range has a smoke-blackened roof.

Bedrooms have six-panel doors. The north room has wide floor boards. The centre and south rooms form one large space with two pine beams and some reused older joists. The rear centre room has wide floor boards and shutters.

Removal of rear ceilings in 2002 revealed two blocked 19th-century second-floor brick-headed windows into the outshut roofspace that appear never to have been opened, suggesting the original intention may have been for a lean-to rear roof rather than a continuous outshut roof. Evidence of wall heightening exists in the north-east rear part. The south end first-floor room shows evidence of roof-raising to align with the rear outshut roof.

The attic has wide boards at the north end and landing, and three fielded-panelled doors—two with four panels and one with two panels. Some reused timbers are evident in the tie-beam trusses of the roof.

The outbuilding, derelict in 2002, retains a remnant of stalls in the south end. The barn had been lofted.