Brereton Hall

Details

BRERETON C.P. BRERETON GREEN SJ 76 SE 7/8 Brereton Hall 6/6/1952

GV I

Hall, now school, 1585 altered 1829 and late C19. Stone-dressed brick; leaded roof to front range, slate roofs to cross-wings. The present building suggests a reversed E plan, probably with a great hall behind the gateway forming the central bar, demolished and replaced by an 1829 conservatory. Front range has basement and 2 storeys with turreted central gateway and a bay of 2 windows to each side flanked by slightly projecting cross-wings of considerable depth forming the sides of an open court to rear. Gateway has replaced Gothick glazed door-screen in basket-arched opening with stone steps; the storey above has a continuous mullioned and transomed window across entrance bay and turrets, with heraldic panel below and above - Brereton plays 2nd fiddle to the royal arms. The turrets were linked by a basket-arched bridge incorporating reused stonework, shorn of their cupolas, slightly foreshortened and crenellated in 1829. Side bays have plinth, low 2-light recessed mullioned casements to basement and 2-light recessed mullioned and transomed casements to both main storeys; crenellation added in 1829. Each cross-wing has a pedimented 2+ storey canted bay window with low 3-light mullioned window to basement and 6-light mullioned and transomed window to each main storey; 2-light mullioned and transomed window, above pediment, to attic; plinth, band at 2nd storey ceiling; coped gables with ball finials. All corners of the building have flush quoins; windows to front, formerly leaded, were reglazed with large panes late C19. Cross-wings have canted bay windows on returns and on rear gable-ends - bay window on inner return of right wing removed and that on outer return of left wing altered and now hip-roofed. 6 or more rectangular brick chimneys, not prominent. Rear wall of front range opposite gateway is blank, with signs of rebuilding now giving onto C19 metal conservatory. Leaded casements at the rear. Interior:, radically altered in 1829, shows only fragments of earlier work: landing and vestiges of a probable great open-well stair of oak at junction of front range and right cross-wing; (but the date of balustrades is doubtful); parts of service stair with bulgy, crudely-turned balusters in each cross-wing; oak-panelled front room of right cross-wing has overmantel of Elizabethan character with heraldic panels (bear's head in coronet-Brereton); rear room in right cross-wing has good Elizabethan chimneypiece with tapering pilasters and a royal coat of arms; annexe of panelled middle room in left cross-wing has fine Jacobean chimneypiece with Caryatid right and Atlas left carrying overmantel with winged and arrow-tailed dragons and: Brereton arms inscribed 1633: OPITULANTE DEO; rear room in left cross-wing has painted panelling; panel in lower rear room of left cross-wing inscribed "DOE NOTHING THIS DAY WHEROF OF THOU MAYEST REPENT TOMORROWE. KNOW HIM WELL WHOM THOU MAKEST OF THY COUNCEL LEST HE BETRAY THY secret", surrounded by strapwork and with a man's head vigorously protruding a forked tongue; 3 and 4-board doors in attics. Features from 1829 include ornate plaster ceiling to hall and geometrical stone stair with mahogany rail on cast-iron balusters.

Listing NGR: SJ7812664855

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

56338

Legacy System:

LBS

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