Listed Building record MDR1128 - 'The Hall' or Parwich Hall, Smithy Lane, Parwich

House dating to around 1747, incorporating earlier fragments, circa 1910 and 1931. Rubble limestone and red brick with sandstone dressings. Hipped slate roofs, gabled to the north. Two brick ridge stacks, two gable end stacks and a brick external stack. Three storeys plus a basement. South elevation, brick with stone dressings, the main block above a stone basement. Main block of five bays, the centre bay advanced. Projecting quoins to central bay and to outer bays. Moulded stone eaves cornice. Basement with four 2-light square section flush mullion windows. Ground floor with central doorway with moulded stone surround, coving and rusticated pilasters and cornice. Six-panelled door, the top four panels raised and fielded. Rectangular overlight with fanlight tracery. Curved flight of nine stone steps with wrought iron railings. Flanked on each side by two windows with segmental heads and moulded stone surrounds. 19th century casement. Five similar, but smaller, windows above and above again. The central first floor window with a pediment. Central pedimented gable flush with the main wall surface and slightly wider than the centre bay. Service wing to the west, of three bays. Ground and first floor circa 1905, three plain sashes to ground floor, segmental arched casement windows above. Top floor added in 1931 with three windows with flat heads, with stone lintels and sills. East elevation of four bays with windows similar to those on the south side. The windows to the two left hand bays are all blocked. North elevation, rubble limestone with two brick gables of low pitch. Irregular fenestration, including a tall round-arched glazing bar sash with moulded stone surround. Above, a glazing bar sash with stone surround, of which the upper half is the remains of a 17th century 2-light recessed chamfer mullion window. In the basement in what are now internal walls, are two 2-light recessed chamfer mullion windows; also a chimney lintel dated TS 1792. Interior mainly late 18th and early 19th century. Late 18th century chimneypiece in the dining room. Very fine mid-18th century chimneypiece in hall, and a good contemporary staircase. (1,2) SK 1863 5460. The Hall. (3) A 17th century double pile house with a moderately steep pitched roof, suggesting that it was originally thatched. (4) A five-bayed house of three storeys with the central bay protruding. It is said to have been completed in 1747. It includes a stone basement with mullioned windows, possibly the remains of the previous manor house, and an Edwardian wing. (5) Traces of a stone built house with mullioned windows built in 1561 by Thomas Levinge remain, forming the plinth of a tall house built by Sir Richard Levinge in 1747 in brick. It has three storeys and five bays with a hipped roof. (6) Parwich Hall was rebuilt by 1746 by Sir Richard Levinge, who demolished the house that his great-great-grandfather had built when he bought the manor in 1561. The house was completely destroyed above the ground floor (which then became the cellars) and a three-storey house made of red-brick was erected. Because the area was building stone rich and plentiful, the bricks must have come from quite a distance, it is evident that the building was constructed for self-advertisement. The main doorway of ashlar blocks of alternating sizes and Tuscan pilasters at the top of a wide outer staircase has not changed since 1746, whereas there is a major change with the addition of an Edwardian wing. During the Edwardian era, the Lewis family in residence at Parwich commissioned the creation of a Mediterranean garden in the grounds of the manor. (7)