Description

SP 09 SW SANDWELL HILL LANE
Great Barr

5/10011 Red House

II

Country house, converted to office and institutional use in the C20 and vacant at the time of re-survey (2008). Built in 1841 for Robert Wellbeloved Scott of Stourbridge, it is classical in style.

MATERIALS: Red brick with ashlar dressings and a slate roof.
PLAN: The house is almost square in plan with a staircase hall to the centre of the north side and a lengthy service wing extending to the north. The house has two storeys and the service wing has three, although their cornices meet at the same height.

EXTERIOR: There are symmetrical fronts to the east (entrance front), south (garden front) and west. The stone dressings include a plain plinth, a guilloche band between the floors, a sill band at first floor level and a projecting cornice to the top of the wall, all of which gird the house. The service wing is more plainly treated with simple bands at the level of the first and second floor window sills. It formerly ended at the north with a walled service yard. In the C20 the yard walls were raised and the area was roofed to create a building which is currently used as a play school.

The east (entrance) front has three bays. The central bay at ground floor level has a portico with paired Ionic columns to either side, above which is a full entablature. Above the blocking course there was formerly a balustrade, but this has mostly been removed. The ground floor windows at either side are aedicular and have lugged and shouldered surrounds which fall to connect with the plinth and have a recessed panel beneath the sash window. To the top of each is a projecting cornice with pulvinated frieze. The three first floor window surrounds rest on the sill band and are lugged. The south and west faces are each of five bays and have similar ground and first floor windows to those seen on the entrance front. The north front has the three-storey service wing projecting at right and to its left is a large, arched, staircase window which rests on the guilloche band. To left of this are two C20 bathroom windows with stucco surrounds. The service wing has four bays with plain surrounds to the windows. Both the house and service wing appear to have their full complement of chimney stacks, which have flush bands near to the tops and moulded caps.

INTERIOR: To the north is an impressive staircase hall which has a dogleg staircase with stone treads, moulded to their undersides, and cast iron balustrade and mahogany hand rail with wreathed curtail. The floor of square stone slabs has small slate diamonds to the corners. To two of the corners are console tables (or possibly blocked fireplaces) above which are arched alcoves and to the half-landing is an arched window with coloured margin glazing. The cornice has large acanthus leaves. Two other ground floor rooms have richly decorated cornices and ceiling roses. Both rooms have marble fire surrounds which are French in style and appear to be later additions of the 1860s or `70s. Both rooms have simple dado rails, which are set rather high and may be a later alteration, and below these is match-boarding, which appears to be yet later.
HISTORY: The house built for Robert Scott was later lived in by Robert Bagnall of Gold's Hill Ironworks and John Marshall, a local ironmaster. The last person to use the building as a house was Sir Henry Meysey Thompson. The second Ordnance Survey map records the house being used as a 'Convalescent Home for Children' and during the Second World War it is believed that it was used to house refugees and it is possible that additional bathrooms were added at that time. It was in institutional and office use for most of the later part of the C20 and at the time of survey [October 2008] it was subject to a tenancy but unused.

SOURCE: Great Barr, Oscott and Kingstanding, Margaret Hanson and Peter Drake, 2001, 26-7.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Red House, Sandwell is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The design is architecturally accomplished.
* The original design and layout of the building can be read with relative ease and it is largely intact despite its later conversion to institutional and office use.
* Although the layout of the accompanying park has been altered to make it into a public amenity, nonetheless, the survival of this setting is a contributory factor to the building's special quality.

Listing NGR: SP0411494513

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26558757

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings