Buckland Hall (aka Buckland House, Buckland and Crosfield House)

Buckland Hall (also known as Buckland House, and formerly as Buckland and Crosfield House) is a large country house built in the Elizabethan Revival style. The building is constructed of snecked rock-faced stone with red sandstone dressings, and is roofed in Welsh slate with corniced ridge stacks and terracotta pots. Decorative kneelers and ball finials sit atop each gable.

The main park frontage faces east and is E-shaped in plan, with three gabled projecting wings, the centre of which is narrower than the others. The house rises three storeys, with the outer wings displaying 2, 3 and 4 light windows across their three floors respectively. The centre bay contains a 4 light window at first floor level. Across the ground floor of the centre bay and the two recessed narrow bays to either side stretches an added wide stone verandah, its flat roof supported by clustered stone columns and featuring a central carved stone crest with strapwork mouldings to the frieze and plinth. A 5 light ground floor bay window is set within this range, with two side doors providing access.

Windows throughout are mostly cross-framed horned sashes with moulded mullions and continuous hoodmoulds and sillbands.

The entrance elevation to the left is dominated by an embattled porte cochère with moulded pointed archways to each side and deep clasping buttresses with offsets at the corners; the parapet incorporates blank crest panels and finials. Behind this stands a porch bay with a black and white marble floor and a Tudor-arched main entrance doorway with side lights and overlight, fitted with double doors bearing linenfold panelling. A large ground floor bay projects from the left side with an embattled parapet, and full dormers rise to the second floor.

The garden frontage features a similar ground floor bay with embattled parapet to the left, and a deep central cross wing with a two-storey bay. Lower service wings extend to the right, some with hipped roofs, gablets and rooflights; an added opposite wing forms a deep courtyard to the rear.

The interior contains a very large main central hall with staircase, flanked by side wings housing a series of large rooms. To the right are a former drawing room and dining room; to the left are a library and former billiard room, later converted to dining room. All main rooms are accessed from the entrance hall on the left.

The former billiard room features a low Tudor-arched stone fireplace, dark oak panelled walls with decorative carved rails and cornice, and a panelled ceiling with bosses. The library is fitted with shelving incorporating strapwork motifs and contains a grey marble fireplace with a large carved wooden Elizabethan style chimneypiece incorporating caryatids and other figures; there are six panelled doors.

The main hall is particularly impressive, with a large imperial staircase featuring heavily moulded balusters and a moulded ramped handrail decorated with deep finials. An arcade to the gallery landing features pierced tracery, and a wide balustrade surrounds the staircase well. A large cross-framed window with stained glass lights the staircase. The hall itself contains a stone fireplace to each side wall, with chimneybreasts carved with strapwork motif and coats of arms of the Gwynne Holford family. The room is panelled throughout and has very decorative glazed doorways to the wings: that to the left displays Elizabethan motifs, while that to the right has a side segmental arched overlight with radial glazing bars. The hall is completed by a panelled plaster ceiling and a landing supported by wide fluted rectangular piers.

Reception rooms to the right have had their fireplaces removed, but the former dining room retains a ceiling with moulded plaster panels and egg and dart moulding, with panelled reveals to the bays. The former kitchen features a rooflight and a belltower above.