Listed Building: THE HALL AND ATTACHED STABLE BLOCK (1273995)

Country house and stable block now museum. c1660 - 1670 and 1876-83 by George Devey. Red brick with vitrified brick diaper work. Sandstone quoins, flush to ground floor, raised and chamfered to first floor. Moulded first floor band and dentilled eaves cornice. Plain tile hipped roofs with two external brick stacks to west and east sides, four ridge stacks to main part and six ridge stacks to west wing. Stable block attached to north west has a brick ridge and a gable stack. Balustraded parapet and central domed ashlar cupola with pilasters and pedimented windows and a ball finial. E-plan. Two storeys and attics. Symmetrical elevations to C17 part. North elevation of nine bays, 1-3-1-3-1. Central two storey porch with six steps leading up to the door. Ashlar. Coupled columns and broken pediments on two floors in a Baroque composition. The carving is by Sir William Wilson of Leicester. The three bays on each side have to the ground floor paired 2-light mullioned windows with two transoms flanked on each side by similar 3-light mullioned and transomed windows. The first floor has similar 3-light windows either side of a paired window with semi-circular and oval motifs. Projecting outer bays have paired 2-light windows with two transoms to each floor. The roof has nine pedimented roof dormers the outer ones with segmental pediments. Irregular elevation to C19 east wing to left in similar style. Descending in height, with square projecting end pavilion and curved wall beyond linking to stable block. Four bay west elevation, almost symmetrical, with similar fenestration. Symmetrical nine bay south elevation of 1-3-1-3-1 bays. Bays one, five and nine project slightly. Centre bay has large round-arched doorway with stone steps and a mullioned window above with semi-circular and oval motifs. Segmental pediment with carving by Sir William Wilson. Three bays on each side have central paired 2-light windows flanked on each side by 2-light windows, all with two transoms. Outer bays have similar paired 2-light windows. Nine roof dormers above as on the north front. C19 east wing, lower and set back to right. Eight bays in similar style, with diaper work and mullioned and transomed windows. Three projecting two storey square bays with paired cross windows to each floor and cross windows in the return wall. Flight of balustraded stone steps in the angle witch the main building. The stable block forms an L-range with the Service wing. Dated 1664. Two storeys. East elevation has a broad round-headed quoined carriage arch, with clock face above in ashlar surround. Cupola bell turret above. Similar entrance to left and between them a doorway with stone surround flanked by 3-light mullioned windows. To the right of the central arch a 2-light window, a single light window, a doorway with stone surround and segmental pediment, a single light window, a doorway with stone surround and a single light window. Two and three-light windows above and a segmental arched opening. The interior of the house was begun in 1670 and completed in 1691. Small alterations in C18 and C19 and restoration 1969-71 by John Fowler. The main entrance leads into a passage opening into the great hall, the passage was divided from the hall by Salvin in c1850. Salvin copied the elaborate rusticated doorway from the west end of the hall. Broad bolection moulded chimneypiece with coved acanthus cornice, matching the cornice to the room. Staircase hall, the Great Staircase (c1676) with white-painted balustrade with luxuriantly carved foliage by Edward Pierce, one of the finest staircases of its date in the country. Rich plaster ceiling by James Pettifer (1675) with paintings by Laguerre (1691). Carved doorway to the Saloon attributed to Thomas Young. The Saloon has a plaster ceiling by Bradbury and Pettifer (1675) with a shallow dome painted by Laguerre. Carved panelling of 1678 by Edward Pierce, altered c1736-41 to take the portraits and painted in the C19. Mid-Victorian marble chimneypiece. The drawing room and library were made into one by Salvin c1853 and re-converted to two in 1969. The drawing room has a ceiling by Bradbury and Pettifer with an early C18 painting on canvas. Sumptuous naturalistic carved overmantel by Grinling Gibbons. Library ceiling by Mansfield (1672) with coved cornice similar to that in the hall. Mansfield might have only executed the cornice, as the ceiling is in the style of Bradbury and Pettifer and may have been added slightly later. Bookcases of c1700 with fluted pilasters and modillion cornice. Upstairs the Queens Room with plasterwork by Mansfield and alabaster chimneypiece and overmantel by Sir William Wilson (1670). Filling the full length of the South front is the Long Gellery, a very conservative feature for its date (completed in 1676). Magnificent ceiling by Robert Bradbury and plain panelling painted in the C19. Upper Library fitted out c1840's. Attic rooms have some plain panelling and the cupola has a circular staircase with barleysugar balusters and a moulded plaster ceiling. Smaller rooms on the east side of the house with plain raised and fielded panelling and various alterations by E. M. Barry who worked on the house between 1869-72 and designed the Secondary Staircase of robust proportions, with a ramped hand-rail. George Devey worked on the house between c1872-80. His east wing has few interior features of special interest and has been converted into a Museum of Childhood. Billiard room with early C20 plasterwork, incomplete, probably by W Romaine-Walker. The stable block with massive double purlin roof is also part of the museum. Sources. Country Life June 15, 22 and 29, 1935, articles by Christopher Hussey. Sudbur Hall Revisited by John Cornforth, in Country Life June 10, 1971. Listing NGR: SK1586832111