Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 11/05/2020

SJ 86 SE
3/1
Biddulph Old Hall

13.4.51

II*
Farmhouse attached to ruins of Biddulph Old Hall (A.M.). Late C17, but incorporating parts of Hall of 1580s; C18 and late C19 additions and alterations. Coursed and dressed sandstone; stone slate roof; verge parapets and massive side stacks. House forms roughly an 'L' plan, backed up against the Old Hall to the south.

Entrance front: irregular composition with screen walls and octagonal and domed tower of Old Hall incorporated into roof to left, with three-storey link block. Two storeys and attic, approximately 30m long, broken in centre by massive projecting stone stack, pitched reductions to right, capped by brick shafts and with further stone stack adjacent to right; range of two-light windows to right; cyma recta reveals and chamfered mullions; three windows to left of stacks; similar with three lights: one to ground floor and two to first; the left-hand set in slight break with pilaster mullions, probably re-used. Further three-light window above set in link block. Mid-C19 single-storey lean-to porch set between stacks and left-hand break; round-arched entry, corbelled imposts with flanking carved memorial devices; boarded door. Projecting C19 gabled wing of one bay to extreme left and in line with A.M. frontage: incorporating much re-used material.

Garden front: to west. Blind gabled projecting three-storey C18 bay to left and A.M. to right flanking rear of C17 house with labelled four-light (round section) mullion and transom hall window packed into angle to left; king mullion to left suggests this was formerly of six lights; mullioned windows to first floor of three and two lights.

North front: C17 gable to left with a range of three, three-light mullioned windows; C18 wing flush to right with a range of three-light casements and entrance to left.

Biddulph Old Hall was actually brought down by 'Roaring Meg', the Parliamentarian's cannon, in 1643, ending a siege of attrition, where Brereton faced Brereton in command on both sides. The farmhouse of a single range and simple link was built on to these ruins some time later by the newly impoverished Biddulph family, who added the modest later wings to both sides. Entrance axes have vacillated from the grand avenue of the 1580s to the south, C17 to the east, C18 to the north and C19 from the east again.

Listing NGR: SJ8936760197

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532022

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

• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)