Details
SO 38 NE
6/87
LYDBURY NORTH C.P.
Plowden Hall
1/12/51
GV
II*
Country house. Circa 1300, mid C14, C16 and C17 with C18 and late C19 alterations and additions. Timber framed with painted wattle and daub infil panels, painted brick nogging, rendering, and partial painted coursed limestone rubble refacing; slate roofs. Irregular H-plan consisting of remains of central circa 1300 three framed bay quasi-aisled former-open hall, mid C14 three framed-bay solar cross wing to south with probably early C16 one framed bay addition to east, probably C17 further cross wing parallel to south, and circa 1580 three framed bay cross wing to north. One storey and attic, two storeys, and two storeys and attic. Partly rendered brick stacks, external lateral stack to central hall range, two stacks to left-hand cross wing and four stacks to right-hand cross Wing, three with rendered pitched-roof links to attic. Decorative framing: principally close studding with central rail, short corner braces, double-curved tension braces, quatrefoil panels, and parallel diagonal framing forming lozenge patterns. East front; central hall range: two C19 gabled dormers with two-light casements; early C18 refacing of five bays with glazing bar sashes and central door
with 10 raised and fielded panels, moulded architrave and bracketed semi-circular niched hood. Left-hand cross wing: first floor and gable end jettied with brackets and moulded bressumers; crown post truss exposed in gable end. First floor C19 three-light leaded casement and underbuilt ground floor with C19 two-light leaded casement. Right hand return front with 10-panelled door and bracketed semi-circular
niched hood. Parallel cross wing to left with C19 two-light leaded first floor casement and two-light ground floor leaded casement. Right hand cross wing: gabled dormers in attic to north and south. First floor and gable end jettied with brackets and moulded bressumers. C19 four-light attic casement, three first floor C18 glazing bar sashes and two ground floor C18 glazing bar sashes; one storey lean-to to right with boarded door to front. West front; central hall range: one storey lean-to with two glazing bar sashes flanking central boarded door; attached C20 conservatory. Right-hand cross wing: queen post truss with V-struts above exposed in gable end; ground floor three-light casement to left. Former two storey gabled garderobe to right with rendered base and two-light casement on each floor. Left-hand cross wing: first floor and gable end jettied with brackets and moulded bressumers; C19 three-light leaded attic casement, and three C18 glazing bar sashes on first and ground floor, that in centre on ground floor with movable wall section beneath to create entrance.
Interior; hall range: remains of central arch-braced base cruck; crown post truss to north with longitudinal bracing and transverse tension braces; first floor probably inserted after 1691. Six raised and fielded panelled doors; C17 panelling with
gadrooned frieze. Fireplace dated 1653 with scrolled overmantel, arched panels, guilloche ornament, and moulded cornice with carved deer in panel. South cross wing: moulded arch-bracing to cusped tie beams, principal rafters and inclined struts; windbraces and chamfered and stopped tenoned purlins. First floor chapel with brass to H. Plowden and wife of 1557, two figures from Bishop's Castle church; billet decorated beams in ground floor room to west. North cross wing: double purlin roof with double queen-strut trusses. Drawing room with crossbeam ceiling; C17 panelling with gadrooned frieze; fireplace with C18 surround, and overmantel consisting of fluted Ionic columns, two tiers of inlaid arcading, frieze and cornice; overmantel in first floor room with two tiers of orders, Ionic below and Corinthian above; late C16 panelling throughout wing; two priest-holes adjacent to large stacks at north. Early C18 staircase consisting of four flights with square well, turned balusters, fluted Doric column newel post, open string with cut tread ends, moulded ramped handrail, and balustrade to landing; C17 back staircase with splat balusters.
The Catholic Plowden family have lived in this house since the C12, substantially rebuilt and added-to in the late C16 by the great lawyer Edmund Plowden (1517-1584).
N.M.R.; N. Pevsner, B.O.E. Shropshire, p.229; Country Life, Vol. CLVII,
February 1975, pp.318-21; M. Moran, The Mediaeval Parts of Plowden Hall,
T.S.A.S., Vol LIX, pp.264-271.
Listing NGR: SO3755786615
