Description

DODDINGTON C.P. DODDINGTON PARK
SJ 74 NW
5/20 Delves Hall
12.1.67

GV I

Tower house. Late C14 with later alterations and restorations. Built
for John Delves or Sir John Delves. Red sandstone ashlar with a slate
roof. Three storeys with corner turrets. Square plan. Entrance
front: Ashlar Jacobean Imperial Staircase to lower body salvaged from
earlier house when the new house of 1777-90 was built and re-applied
here. This staircase has central lower flight with balustrades of
pierced ashlar strapwork in the form of enriched quatrefoils. To the
half landing is a crude Ionic column supporting a naked female figure
and the undercroft to the lateral flights of stairs has rusticated
pilasters to either side of central large statues representing the
Black Prince, Audley and his four squires, all dressed in armour, and
standing on semi-circular plinths decorated with strapwork. The first
floor has a pointed doorway at right with an ogee hoodmould with
figurehead label stops. String course between ground and first
floors. Battlemented parapet above with battlemented corner turrets.
The right hand side has a shallow pointed archway to the ground floor
originally joining the house to a later extension. This now has a
recessed 2-light Cl9 window to its centre. The first floor has three
lancet windows and one 2-light window to the second floor with cusped
lights and a lancet at right of it. The left hand side has a C19
2-light first floor window with Y-tracery and a transom. To the
second floor is a 2-light window with cusped lights. The rear has a
2-light first floor window with Y-tracery with transom and a 2-light
window to the second floor with cusped lights.
Interior: tunnel-vaulted ground-floor room with a staircase (now
blocked) to the right of the southern window embrasure. The first
floor has a similar arrangement of window and stairway. There is a
cast iron stove with a hob grate of late C18 or early C19 date to the
northern wall and a fireback dated 1663/TP. The second floor has been
taken out. In the early/mid C17 the house was extended so that the
tower formed the south-easternmost feature of a Jacobean house. This
house was demolished after the new hall was completed and the Imperial
staircase which had been a centrepiece was re-applied to the tower
which was retained.

Listing NGR: SJ7087347025

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Delves Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5254942

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)