Description

ODD RODE C.P. (Off) CHURCH LANE
SJ 85 NW Scholar Green

7/73 Rode Hall
6.6.52
GV II*

Country House. A house of seven bays with stable block was built
c.1700 for Randle Wilbraham. This now forms the service wing and
replaced an earlier timber framed structure. To this was added for
Randle Wilbraham II a large addition in 1752 attributed to the Hiorne
brothers. In 1799 Randle Wilbraham III employed John Hope to add the
bow windows on the western and east sides and at the same time he
lowered the windows, covered the house in render and re-oriented the
entrance to the western front. In 1808 he employed Lewis Wyatt to
design the dining room. In 1926 Darcy Bradell stripped off the
render, altered the western end of the hall and added the present
portico and rebuilt the balconies at first floor level. Red Flemish
bond brick with ashlar dressings and a slate roof with lead dressings.
Two and three storeys.
Entrance front: the portion of c.1700, now the service wing, is
slightly recessed and at right. It is of 7 bays symmetrically
disposed with projecting bays to either side and ashlar quoins to the
corners at ground floor level and a stone string-course between the
floors. Central doorway with plain ashlar pilaster pieces to the
sides and round-arched doorhead with alternately projecting voussoirs.
The door has 4 flush panels and a fanlight. To either side are
cross-windows with stone sills and a flat-arched head of gauged brick
with a central keystone. To the first floor are 5 similar windows,
the central one having an ogee moulding to the lower edge of the head.
The projecting lateral wings have later Venetian windows to the ground
floor whose arched central lights project through the string-course.
To the first floor above these are oeil-de-boeuf windows with ashlar
surrounds. Hipped roof with a central octagonal bellcote with
round-arched arcade and lead ogee dome and golden acorn finial.
Lateral chimney-stacks. To the left of this is the house of 1752
which is of 5 bays having a bay at right which connects the new house
to the old and which was probably added c.1800; and to left of this 4
bays symmetrically disposed. To the centre at first floor level are 2
windows with rugged ashlar surrounds and projecting keystones of 2 x 4
sash panes. Above these are two similar attic windows with 3 x 2
panes and to the ground floor is a projecting portico entrance added
by Darcy Bradell which has 4 Ionic columns and pilaster responds to
the rear with a plain frieze to the entablature and a flat roof. To
the rear wall are central glazed doors with a fanlight over and
lateral windows of 5 x 6 panes. To either side are portions of brick
walling with rectangular ashlar panels carved with coats of arms and
swags of drapery in relief, and rainwater heads both bearing the date
1927. To either side of this central arrangement are projecting bow
windows replacing former square bay windows. These bows each
incorporate three bays, the lateral of which have all been blocked.
The ground floor has tripartite windows to the central bays with
moulded surrounds. To the first floor are French windows, each set
letting onto a balcony with cast iron railing, being replacements of
1927, and to the second floor are sash windows of 4 x 2 panes.
Hipped roofs with lead flashings to both portions of the front, the
earlier part at right having square chimney stacks of 4 flues to right
and left of centre and the later portion having rectangular stacks to
right and left of the 2 central bays and at far right.
The left hand side of the house has 5 bays symmetrically disposed with
an ashlar plinth and quoins to the corners at ground floor level and a
central portico with paired Roman Doric columns to either side with
pilaster responds. Doric frieze above and to the interior of the
portico which has a flat roof. To either side are ground floor
windows of 3 x 5 panes with flat-arched heads all of which appear to
have been lowered c.1800. Between the floors is a stone band on which
the first floor windows rest, all being of 3 x 4 sash panes and having
also been lowered by cutting through an upper band upon which they
used previously to rest. The 5 second floor windows are all of 3 x 2
sash panes and there is an ashlar cornice and parapet to the top of
the wall. Chimney stacks to right and left of centre.
The rear has 4 bays at left and a bow to the right with one central
window of 3 x 5 panes, a blocked first floor window and a second floor
window of 4 x 2 sash panes. The 4 bays at left of this are of two
builds with brick flat-arched heads at right with 3 x 5 panes at
ground floor level, 3 x 4 panes at first floor level and 3 x 2 panes
to the second floor. To the left at ground floor level is an ashlar
door surround designed by Wyatt with pilaster strips to either side
and ashlar wedge-lintel above.
Interior: The entrance hall has two screens of 2 painted wooden
Tuscan columns with panelled pilasters in antis, one at each end, a
coved ceiling and a chimneypiece of grey granite. The Dining Room has
a coved ceiling and a segmental niche at one end, to accommodate a
sideboard, with a richly modelled ceiling having gilded vines in high
relief. Two screens of scagliola columns with Ionic capitals and
doserettes placed against the walls and a black marble chimneypiece
with bronze ornaments. Large-scale egg-and-dart moulding to the
cornice and bands of guilloche ornament running between the columns.
The staircase hall has dado panelling and a staircase of 3 flights
with a ramped handrail with wreathed curtail and fluted balusters with
acanthus bowls and moulded string. To the walls are lugged and
shouldered picture surrounds and to the ceiling Rococo plasterwork
including an eagle below the landing. To the northern (garden) front
are a central octagonal anteroom with the library and drawing room at
either side, the library having fitted mahogany bookcases with a small
scale acanthus frieze of early C19 date and the drawing room having a
white marble chimney-piece with trophies of arms in shields to either
side.

Sources: Nikolaus Pevsner & The Buildings of England:
Edward Hubbard Cheshire, 1971

Clive Aslet Rode Hall Country Life 1985

Listing NGR: SJ8189057336

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Rode Hall at Wikipedia
• Rode Hall official website
• Wikidata Q7356511

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (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]