Listed Building: COLDHAM HALL (404618)

TL 85 NE STANNINGFIELD COLDHAM HALL LANE 5/86 Coldham Hall 14.7.55 GV I A large country house, 1574, for Robert Rookwood. 2 storeys and attics; hall range recessed between two cross-wings. Red brick with diaper-work in burnt headers at front and on hall chimney; parapets and parapet gables of brick with limestone copings and ball finials. Plaintiled roofs with rear and gable chimneys of red brick; groups of 2 and 3 octagonal shafts (mainly rebuilt C19) with heavy star-tops and moulded bases on a square plinth; the hall chimney has original moulded bases, with rebuilt shafts. Mullioned and transomed windows of rendered brick, those at ground floor and in the gables and porch have pediments above; leaded lights, some with crown glass, some with original or early iron casements and furniture; a splayed bay window to the great hall with mullions and transomes. Dummy windows in the left-hand gable, masking the chimney. 3 storey entrance porch with 2 orders of fluted, strongly tapered pilasters clasping the angles. Semi-circular arched entrance within square frame; the pediment has a small tablet with the date 1574 and above it, R.R. (the initials of Robert Rookwood), Oak panelled door within the porch. An entrance doorway into each wing, with elliptical arched head in a square frame; oak panelled door. The great hall, open through 2 storeys, has a large open fireplace with arched head and, above, a crude black-painted pediment with ball finials; panelled cross-passage screen with pair of doors and blank arcading, turned balusters, etc; the ceiling plastered in 4 quadrants, each having a central square ribbed panel with acorn and oak-leaf motifs in high relief, the same motif repeated in the corners of each quadrant. The solar adjoining the minstrels gallery has full wainscotting and a limestone fireplace surround with arched head and classical pediment above. The main staircase in short straight flights; the landing has a full-height screen of 2 tiers of turned balusters with a middle rail. Doorcases and window mullions etc., are ovolo-moulded in the new fashion. A long gallery in the roof space passes above the great hall and is 32 metres long. Internal alterations c.1770 include: a Roman Catholic chapel leading from the long gallery with delicate plasterwork. In the Strawberry Hill Gothick manner - architraves, pilasters, etc., and a dove above the altar wall, with radiating sunlight around it; a number of rooms with panelling, fireplaces and other good joinery. Mid C19 alterations, including loggias on the east and south side, now removed, but various window alterations at the rear and a service wing at the north end remain. The house restored c.1980. Ambrose Rookwood, son of Robert,was involved in the Gunpowder plot and was executed 1605. The Rookwood family continued in the Roman Catholic faith, as shown by the 2 chapels and several priest-holes at Coldham. Listing NGR: TL8641455860