Details
SJ 5829-5929
11/55
HODNET C.P
HAWKSTONE PARK
Hawkstone Hall
(Formerly listed as Joseph's College, Hawkstone Park)
10.02.59
GV
I
Country house, now pastoral and study centre. Circa 1700, altered between 1719 and 1725 for Richard Hill, and remodelled and enlarged c.1750 for Sir Rowland Hill. Further altered and enlarged in 1832-34 by Lewis Wyatt for Sir Rowland Hill, minor alterations including the reduction of the wings soon after 1900 for Lord Marchamley, and chapel added in 1934 by G.B. Cox of Birmingham. Red brick with painted sandstone dressings. Hipped slate roofs.
Central nine-bay block with extruded corner towers and with flanking three-bay quadrant link walls to projecting five-bay wings forming entrance courtyard to west. Service blocks to north-east and chapel adjoining to south-east. Two storeys and attic over basement with two-storey wings.
Central block: chamfered-rusticated plinth, chamfered quoins to end bays, plat band between ground and first-floor windows, enriched modillion cornice, dentil cornice to attic, continued across end bays as band, and parapet with moulded cornice. Each corner tower with moulded dentil eaves cornice and pyramidal cap with urn finial. Six brick stacks, each with stone frieze and moulded cornice. 1:2:3:2:1 bays; projecting centre and end bays. Glazing bar sashes with moulded cills, moulded lugged architraves, and raised triple keystones. Basement windows (some painted) with chamfered-rusticated voussoirs. Triangular-pedimented attic windows to end bays.
Projecting central frontispiece consisting of tetrastyle Corinthian portico with cable-fluted three-quarter columns, entablature with modillion cornice, plain dies to attic and triangular pediment, breaking forward over dies, and with acroteria at feet and apex with urn finials. Carved coat of arms in tympanum with flanking swags. Central attic window with crossed palms above and flanking carved drops. Pair of early C20 half-glazed doors with half-H panels and doorcase of c.1900 consisting of moulded architrave, raised triple keystone with monogram, and open and broken triangular pediment with shield, flanking husk drops and palm fronds and half-H panel with guttae in tympanum. Husk drops between doorcase and inner columns.
Seven stone steps with pair of flanking Sphinxes. Lead downpipes with foliage ornament where they pass through cornice and simple rainwater heads. Returns of towers with blind round-arched attic panels.
Flanking quadrant walls: raised c.1832-34. Three bays. Stone plinth, plat band, influted Doric pilaster strips, each supporting section of triglyph frieze, moulded cornice and parapet with dies and moulded coping. Each with central first-floor round-arched niche with pilastered surround and flanking lugged square panels. Ground-floor glazing bar sashes, moulded cills and gauged-brick heads with raised triple keystones.
Wings: each of 2:3 bays; formerly symmetrical but end bays demolished c.1900 and apses rebuilt. Moulded plinth, plat band, unfluted Doric pilaster strips, each supporting section of triglyph frieze, moulded cornice, and parapet with dies and moulded coping. Glazing bar sashes with moulded cills and gauged heads with raised triple keystones. Doorways on second bays from west; each with three stone steps up to pair of doors with five raised and fielded panels, moulded lugged architrave, raised faceted keystone and doorcase consisting of panelled pilaster strips, large console brackets and segmental pediment. Lead downpipes between first and second bays from east with moulded semi-circular rainwater heads. Apsidal west ends, each with Doric pilaster strips and full entablature with wreaths. First-floor round-arched windows with moulded architraves, raised triple keystones,and bracketed cills. Central ground-floor glazing bar sash with moulded cill and gauged heads with raised triple keystones and flanking lugged square panels. Rear of right-hand wing also with doorway, and with further bay to east. The remaining arched stacks to each wing have been demolished since Oswald's country Life article of 1958.
East (garden) front: central projecting three-bay frontispiece with a Giant Doric order. Pilasters supporting architrave with buchrania in frieze, dies to attic and triangular pediment, breaking forward over dies, and with acroteria at feet and apex with urn finials. Circular window in tympanum with moulded architrave. Ground and first floors with chamfered rustication, blind first-floor square windows with scrolled keystones and round-arched ground-floor windows with grotesque masks in keystones and impost mouldings with shells beneath. Blind windows to reveals. Ground-floor of flanking bays extended flush with frontispiece c.1832-34. Two-storey three-bay end pavilions, also of c.1832-34, each with Doric corner pilasters, cornice and parapet. Central break with first floor square panel, the left-hand pavilion also with ground-floor round-arched niche and angled corner. Glazed rear of southern quadrant link with Doric pilasters and entablature.
Chapel adjoining to south-east. Red brick with grey sandstone dressings. Cruciform plan with a tower in the north-east angle. In a free Romanesque style. Short arcaded link to house. Mid-C20 additions to north-east of house in a neo-Georgian style, replacing Lewis Wyatt's 1832-34 service wing. Small octagonal brick building to north, possibly formerly a dairy.
INTERIOR of house: rooms and fittings dating from the more important building periods at Hawkstone. Entrance hall: c.1900, in an early C18 style. Screen to entrance with unfluted Doric columns and balustrades flanking steps. Lugged panels. Wooden fireplace and overmantel in a neo-Palladian style.
Right-hand ground-floor front room: c.1900, in an early C18 style. Ionic screens. Lugged panels and plaster ceiling. Chimneypiece with bolection-moulded surround, 1958. Ionic pilasters, open segmental pediment and carved dropa.
Staircase hall: early C18 three-light rectangular-well cantilevered staircase with landings; open string with carved brackets and tread ends, barleysugar balusters (two per tread), four balusters grouped to form newels, and ramped moulded handrail. Raised and fielded dado panelling. Reset C18 doorcase to second landing with lugged architrave and open segmental pediment. Coved ceiling with c.1900 neo-Caroline plasterwork and central oval toplight.
Saloon: c.1740. Richly decorated lugged plaster wall panels and overdoors, some with paintings including a large painting of the siege of Namur. Arched windows with panelled reveals and surrounds with egg and dart enrichment, rocaille crestings and drops. Brackets between windows carrying busts. Four side doorways with lugged architraves and bracketed cornices. End doorcase with lugged architrave and bracketed triangular pediment. Rich modillion cornice and frieze with relief heads of Roman emperors. Cove with grisaille paintings against gold leaf ground. Central three-part ceiling with cornucopia surrounds, putti end panels and central circular panel. Marble chimneypiece consisting of bracketed supports with putti, heavy cornice, and wooden overmantel with term supports, broken triangular pediment with bust, and central panel with carved scrolled surround and painting.
Present library with late C18 marble fireplace. Ground-floor room to south-east with plaster ceiling and neo-Rococo fireplace surround, probably by Lewis Wyatt. Drawing room to south-east: 1832-4, by Lewis Wyatt in a Louis XIV style. Rich plasterwork including wall panels and ceiling with cartouches and panels of various shapes. Doorcases with lugged architraves and cornices; large doorcase with triangular pediment on heavy consoles. Pelmets.
Southern quadrant link: coved ceiling with circular panels at each end. Circular staircase to first floor of south-west wing consisting of four curved lower steps and two sweeping upper flights with cast-iron balustrade. Former library in first-floor of south-west wing: c.1900. Fluted Corinthian pilasters. Ceiling with Rococo decoration in coves and central panel with guilloche-type ornament. Marble fireplace with pedimented wooden overmantel (possibly reset c.1700). Three-bay antal screen. Marble-clad apse consisting of Ionic columns in antis with floral-carved spiral banding. Banded dome and arched reveals to windows. The right-hand wing formerly contained the chapel, replaced on the ground-floor with a swimming pool after the c.1900 alterations.
For more detailed accounts of the complex architectural history of the house see the articles by Oswald and Gomme. Hawkstone Hall was the family home of the Hill family. The house stands within an important and spectacular late C18 park. Much of the park, which includes a number of ornamental buildings and other structures, lies in the adjoining parish (See under Weston-under-Redcastle C.P.)
Arthur Oswald, Country Life, March 27, 1958, pp. 640-3 and April 3, 1958, pp. 698-701; Andor Gomme, Archaeological Journal, Vol.141 (1984), pp. 309-325; B.O.E., pp. 143-4, Ed. Peter Reid, Burkes and Savills Guide to Country Houses. Vol. II. Herefordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire, pp. 92-3.
Listing NGR: SJ5813229913
