Hagley Hall

Details

SO 98 SW HAGLEY CP HAGLEY PARK

2/126 Hagley Hall (Formerly listed as Hagley 23.4.52 Hall with barn, coach-houses, Temple of Thesus and obelisk)

I

Country house in landscaped park. 1754-60 by Sanderson Miller; restored c1927 after fire of 1925. Sandstone ashlar with slate and plain tiled roofs and massive sandstone chimney stacks. Compact and symmetrical rectangular plan with square projecting corner pavilions. Two main storeys on rusticated basement with pavilions rising an additional storey higher and having shallow pyramidal roofs; band between basement and ground floor, ground floor sill string and moulded eaves cornice with balustraded parapet (main roofs visible behind parapet pre-1925 fire). Palladian style. Main fronts to south-west and north-east of 11 bays articulated as 1:3:3:3:1 with pavilions forming outer bays; central three bays break forward slightly and have a simple pediment. Side elevations of 1:3:1 bays. Basement has 6-light windows with rusticated voussoirs; the pavilion windows break forward with the projecting rising to ground floor sill string level. The windows at the centre of the side elevations are round-headed with stepped voussoirs. Ground floor windows have moulded architraves and cornices and are all 12-pane sashes with panels of blind balustrading beneath the sill string (except in side elevations); the pavilion windows have pediments on consoles and shouldered architraves. The first floor windows are all square 6-pane sashes with moulded architraves; the architraves of the pavilion windows are eared. The additional storey of the pavilions has a sill string formed by a continuation of the balustraded parapet coping; the windows are 9-pane sashes with moulded architraves and cornices and a panel of blind balustrading beneath the sill string. The main south- west entrance elevation has a balustraded and rusticated perron with a double flight of steps leading to the central entrance which has a pedimented distyle Ionic portico and partly glazed double doors with a transom light. At the centre of the perron is a semi-circular archway providing access to the basement. In place of the entrance on the south-east elevation is a window with pediment on consoles and shouldered architrave. Interior (not inspected at time of re- survey, October 1985): damaged by fire c1925 and now restored. Much ornate Rococo stuccowork by Francesco Vassali. Entrance Hall, or White Hall, has much stuccowork with niches containing figures copied from Pitti Palace; stone chimneypiece by James Lovell with atlantes supporting urns and relief of Pan offering the fleece to Diana, signed by Vassali. Dining room similarly ornate, (ceiling reinstated from photographs) and has festoons decorating the walls with trophies hung from ribbons and emblematic of George Lyttleton's interests. The gallery along the south-west side also has a Rococo ceiling with a chinoiserie theme and, in contrast, is divided into three bays by two screens of Corinthian columns. The Drawing Room or Tapestry Room has survived with very little alteration and has gilded stuccowork and on the ceilings are medallions painted by James "Athenian" Stuart. The Barrel Room was created after the fire and has a barrel roof, Tudor panelling and chimneypiece of 1585. Fireplaces throughout are of elaborate detail. Staircase has not survived in its original state. Hagley Hall is the last of the great Palladian houses and was probably influenced by Croome Court, Worcestershire, begun by Capability Brown in 1751 and a building with which Miller had become involved. Both Hagley and Croome were inspired by Colen Campbell's Houghton Hall, Norfolk, begun in 1722. At Hagley the lines are cleaner, the detail is more restrained still and the emphasis on the ends rather than the centre of the building is even more pronounced. Hagley Hall is the seat of the Viscount Cobham. [CL Articles (mainly vols 38, p 520 and 122, p 546 & 608); VCH, 3(i), p 130-1; BoE, p 177-8; Hagley Hall Official Guide Book).

Listing NGR: SO9195980690

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

156389

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hagley Hall Official Guide, ()
Doubleday, AH, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Worcester, (1913), 130-1
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (1968), 177-8
Country Life in Country Life, (), 520+122
Country Life in Country Life, (), 546+608

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 20 Hereford and Worcester,

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