Hampton Hall is a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

Worthen Worthen is a village in Shropshire, England approximately 13 miles west of Shrewsbury. The village forms part of the Worthen with Shelve civil parish, which includes the hamlet of Little Worthen immediately to the north-east and the villages o ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

History

It was built between 1681 and 1686 for Henry Powell, and parts of an earlier house may have been incorporated into the left wing. It was altered in 1749 for Edward Herbert, with the addition of a prominent two-storey bow to the far left, and was extended in 1938. It became a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1951.

Architectural details

Built of red brick with slate roofs, the main central part of the house is rectangular with projecting wings to either side. The central part has three storeys and a

semi-basement In architecture, a semi-basement is a floor of a building that is half below ground, rather than entirely such as a true basement or cellar. Traditionally, semi-basements were designed in larger houses where staff was housed. A semi-basement usu ...

, with a brick parapet concealing the roof, and crow-stepped gables. The flanking wings have two storeys and a semi-basement and hipped roofs with dormer windows. The main stairs occupy a projection to the rear with another crow-stepped gable. The house is in red brick with

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roofs, and consists of a central block, flanking projecting wings, and a recessed extension to the rear on the left. The central block has two storeys, an attic and a basement, and seven

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

. Twelve steps lead up to a central

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

porch that has round-headed arches on three sides and a shaped

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

broken by a coat of arms. The windows in the ground floor are

sashes Sashes Island is an island in the River Thames in England at Cookham Lock near Cookham, Berkshire. It is now open farmland, but has Roman and Anglo-Saxon connections. The island is located between Hedsor Water and the present navigation chan ...

, in the upper floor are three central rectangular panels, flanked by two circular windows on each side, some of which are blind, and at the top is a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

and crow-stepped

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

ends. Both wings have two storeys over a semi-basement, two bays, and

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

, and most windows are sashes. The right wing contains a two-storey sandstone bow with a parapet surmounted by a stone eagle with outstretched wings. In the ground floor is a doorway with a triangular pediment, above is a curved Venetian window with Ionic

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

References

* * Country houses in Shropshire Grade II* listed buildings in Shropshire Houses completed in 1686 1686 establishments in England Stepped gables {{UK-listed-building-stub

History

Architectural details

See also

References