Description

SJ 40 NE CONDOVER C.P. CONDOVER

5/81 Condover Hall
-

3.11.55

GV I

Country house, now school. 1598 for Thomas Owen, Justice of Common Pleas
on behalf of his son, Roger; Walter Hancock probably master mason. Red
sandstone ashlar with yellow stone dressings; machine tile roofs with
coped verges and prominent red brick stacks, some with attached shafts of
star section, largely re-built in late C19. E-plan with shallow projecting
full-height porch to centre. 2 storeys with gabled attics, moulded band
with strapwork decoration to first floor and moulded eaves cornice;
cellars; 1:3:1:3:1 bays, mullioned and transomed windows throughout, those
on ground floor with 2 transoms and those to first floor and attic with one,
blind oculi flanking attic windows; projecting wings have shallow 2-storey
7-light canted bay windows; central full-height entrance porch with 5-
light canted bay windows to first and second floors; obelisks and strapwork
achievement to shaped gable with small pediment and finial to top; round-
arched doorway has wide low pediment supported on Doric columns, richly
carved late C19 double doors and Owen coat-of-arms above, below first-floor
window; C18 lead downpipes to corners. Right (north) return; has
rectangular tower with 2-light mullioned and transomed windows and partly
open parapet to centre with prominent lateral stacks to left and right;
2-storey projection below tower with 4-light mullioned and transomed
windows, flanked by 3-light mullioned and transomed windows to left and
right; mullioned and transomed windows to outer sides of stacks, blocked
except upper left, lower right painted with imitation Gothic glazing.
West front: has 5 gables, 3 to recessed centre and 2 to projecting wings,
which, like those to entrance front, have shallow 2-storey 7-light bay
windows; centre with 9-bay round-arched arcade to ground floor, probably
once open (c.f. Burghley and Hatfield) but now with C19 Gothic glazing;
mezzanine storey above has 3-light mullion windows with wide pediments;
shallow 5-light canted bay to centre carried up from mezzanine to gable;
mullioned and transomed windows throughout (except to mezzanine), all with
single transoms. Left (south) return: original design partly obscured
by additions of late C19, c.1927 and late C20; C20 extension of rectangular
tower (originally like that on north) projecting to centre; small
elaborately decorated porch attached to lateral stack to front probably late C19.
Interior: much altered in late C19 and during C20, original stone fireplace
in room to right of entrance porch has coupled Ionic columns below with
pillars above, 3 round-headed arches above overmantel with 2 standing
figures in outer arches flanking coat-of-arms of Roger Owen to centre: late
C19 staircase in room to left of entrance porch with 4 flights to landing
and carved lions to newels; some of restored early C17 panelling in centre
rooms and projecting left wing (the latter decorated with rosette and other
floral motifs) is probably original to the house, but some is said to have
been brought here from elsewhere. Condover Hall is the best large house
of its date in the county. B.o.E., p. 112-13; Country Life, Vols. 3 and
43.

Listing NGR: SJ4952105658

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Condover Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17529632

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014