Listed Building record MDR6156 - Barlborough Hall School, Barlborough

Barlborough Hall School, Barlborough, originally built in 1583. Barlborough Hall is a fine Elizabethan house of two storeys and basement with four small raised towers of windows. Many fine interior features. Listed, Grade 1. (1) The Hall is in poor condition with bulging walls and decayed facings. See GPs: AO/60/109/6 and 7 - Panorama of south aspect of Barlborough Hall School buildings. The Hall is now an adjunct to St Mary's Roman Catholic College at Spinkhill. (2) Barlborough Hall was built by Sir Francis Rodes, a judge in the Court of Common Pleas and patronized by the Earl of Shrewsbury. It is dated 1583 on the porch, and 1584 on the Great Chamber overmantel. One of the not very frequent Elizabethan mansions of compact, almost square plan. It has a small inner courtyard, now glazed and filled with a staircase in 1825. The south front is tall, castellated and of only five bays. The sides of the house are asymmetrical, that on the east partly Georgianized in 1825 when a new entrance was made. The Great Chamber is now a chapel. The plan has two peculiarities. Firstly, there is a corridor on each floor around the inner courtyard; secondly, the internal walls are so thick that the rooms are divided by double doors with small lobbies, lighted by a single-light window, between. It was probably designed by Robert Smythson, architect for the Earl of Shrewsbury's contemporary Worksop manor. (3) Barlborough Hall is one of a most important group of Midland high houses and, within that category, of a number of seats associated with Robert Smythson and the circle of the Earls of Shrewsbury. It was built 1583-4 and is firmly attributable to Smythson. The house is of brick, covered with later stucco with dressings of permian magnesian limestone. It is almost square in plan, of two tall stories over a high basement. The centre of the house once boasted a central courtyard with the unusual feature of a corridor running right round within the walls overlooking it and adjacent to it on each floor. The more central interior walls are quite remarkably thick and massive although poorly constructed and could perhaps represent the vestiges of an earlier tower-house on the site. If so, it could have been built by John Selioke who purchased the estate in 1534. In 1671 tax was assessed on 21 hearths and in 1697 the courtyard was covered over and filled with a substantial staircase. In 1825 the house was reorientated, the entrance henceforth being on the east front at basement level. In 1938 the house was sold, along with the 300 acre park, and a prep school was founded the following year to complement Spinkhill College, which still flourishes. (6) Barlborough Hall is one of the most interesting Elizabethan smaller country houses. Early authorities, and the presence of Roman coins, may suggest that the hall stands upon the site of an earlier mansion or fortified dwelling, although there is no extant archaeological evidence for this. The present hall was built between 1583-4, and was planned and built in one operation. Although externally the principal elevations suggest a completely symmetrical plan, in response to the prevailing influence of Renaissance thought, the principal rooms are arranged on the traditional Great Hall concept. Overall, Barlborough Hall represents the fully-domesticated 'four-square castle keep' without the curtain walls. The inner walls are as much as six and a half foot thick, whilst the principal staircase is based upon the spiral and is in stone. The plan is approximately square, with all the rooms being grouped around the central light well. The main floor is raised above the ground, following the traditional plan of a Manor House layout no less than the Renaissance idea of the 'Piano Nobile', or Grand Floor. (7) A structural watching brief was carried out during electrical rewiring at Barlborough Hall in 2009. Archaeological observations were restricted to small areas only, the majority of which related to the exposed floor structure where floorboards had been lifted. Structural changes were noted associated with the conversion of the central courtyard into a stairwell and the reorientation of the main entrance to the east, which included the creation of a staircase. Occasional historic features were also observed in situ, including an unusual side access to a fireplace, a hidden gutter-channel in a wall between two rooms, a glazed light well in the floor of a room, and the limited application of lime-ash flooring over front of hall rooms and corridors. (8) In 1910 Mrs Godfrey Locker Lampson published a collection of letters belonging to the Rodes family which had lain (apparently un-noticed) in Barlborough Hall since the 18th century. (9) From the National Heritage List for England: 'This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 28/10/2019 SK 47 NE 1/45 PARISH OF BARLBOROUGH PARK STREET Barlborough Hall School Barlborough Hall (Formerly listed as Barlborough Hall WARD LANE) 19.11.1951 GV I Country house, now a school. Built for Sir Francis Rodes, a judge in the Court of Common Pleas and patronized by the Earl of Shrewsbury. Dated 1583 on the porch and 1584 on the Great Chamber overmantel. Probably by Robert Smythson. Sandstone ashlar and render. Roofs hidden behind battlemented parapets. Chamfered plinth and moulded bands linking the heads of all the windows and sometimes stepped up over them. Compact square plan with canted and polygonal bays. Basement and two storeys, the bays rising to an extra storey. The principal elevation faces south and is of five symmetrical bays. Square projecting central porch bay has a flight of balustraded stone steps leading up to the doorway which has coupled Tuscan Doric columns and pieces of entablature. Four-centred arched doorway with moulded arch and carved spandrels. Two carved coats of arms above, one above the other. Six-light window above with two major mullions and two transoms. Carved coat of arms above again. The recessed bays on either side have to the basement a cross window and a three-light mullioned and transomed window. Four-light windows above with a major mullion and two transoms. Two similar windows above. Polygonal bays have a two-light window to the basement and three tiers of windows above of 1-2-2-2-1 lights with two transoms, except the top storey which has one transom. North elevation of five bays has three tiers of windows as to the south. Square projecting bay in the centre has four-light windows, the centre two lights breaking forward to a point. Single lights to the returns. Four-light windows on either side with two transoms and a major mullion. Irregular four-bay east elevation has a central canted bay and projecting canted porch dated 1825. Four-centred arched doorway with carved spandrels. Two tiers of windows above of 1-2-2-1 lights. To the left area five-light and a three-light mullioned and transomed window. Six-light window above with a major mullion and two transoms. Similar window above again. To the right are a five-light and a three-light mullioned and transomed window. Above is a six-light and a four-light window with two transoms. Above again is a similar six-light window. The west elevation has a central canted bay. Cross windows and early C19 glazing bar sashes. Six-light mullioned and transomed windows to the top floor. Interior: the chapel (formerly the Great Chamber) has a decorative plaster ceiling and a stone chimneypiece with paired fluted columns and richly carved overmantel. C18 fluted pilasters. Early C19 stained glass. Adjoining Music Room has a richly carved wooden chimney piece, fire back dated 1616. Plaster overmantel with coat of arms, dated 1697.C18 bolection moulded door surrounds. Staircase hall in the centre of the house, originally open, with three-light mullioned and mullioned and transomed windows. Open well staircase with two heavy turned balusters per tread. C19 gothic arches to landing. The entrance hall has early C19 gothic fireplace, doors and shutters. One C16 four-centred arched doorway. C19 porch has a gothic rib-vault. The second floor has a corridor along the west side with five moulded four-centred arched stone doorways. C19 gothic doors. The south west room has late C16 panelling. East corridor has four similar doorways. Timber spiral staircase from the first to second floor. West corridor on the first floor has four similar doorways, one with a latin inscription and carved spandrels. The north west room has C16 panelling. The south west room has a C16 plaster ceiling and C18 panelling. Mid C18 eared chimneypiece. The middle room on the west side has a C16 plaster frieze. Source:Robert Smythson & the Elizabethan Country House by Mark Girouard, Yale University Press 1983. Listing NGR: SK4777078258.' (10)