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CLEOBURY MORTIMER

SO67NE Mawley Hall 582-1/2/26 12/11/54

GV I

Country house. c1730, restored 1962. Attributed to either Francis Smith of Warwick, or Thomas White of Worcester. MATERIALS: red brick with sandstone ashlar dressings; Giant Roman Doric order pilasters at corners and at angles of 3-bay centre supporting large moulded and dentilled cornice below second floor and continued above by short panelled pilasters supporting smaller parapet cornice. Windows with gauged brick lintels with raised keystones supporting shelf and carved apron below sills, doors with broken segmental pediments advanced over pilasters or demi-columns, large urns set on parapet. Hipped slate roof. 4 large integral panelled brick ridge chimneys. PLAN: rectangular of 9 bays by 7. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement. North-east front is 9-window range of 9/6 sashes, 6/3 at second floor, with central 3 bays slightly advanced under steep pediment with tall statues each side and urn at apex and with tympanum of plain brick now replacing an infill of the original carved coat of arms. The central sashes with rosette surrounds, with the first-floor surround flanked by elongated volutes. The central door has segmental pediment with broken bed and apex with enriched frieze and supported by Corinthian demi-columns either side of a 10-panelled door. South-east front: 7-window range of 9/6 sashes, 6/3 at second floor with central 3 bays advanced. The central door has segmental pediment with modillions and broken apex with plain frieze and supported by Ionic pilasters. 4 pairs of windows set under sashes set in ashlar basement wall. South-west front: 9-window range of 9/6 sashes, 6/3 at second floor, with central 3 bays recessed. The central door has broken apex pediment with Doric entablature and pilasters, and is approached from a double flight of steps balustraded with enriched wrought iron. Basement windows as for south-east side. North-west front: 7-window range of 9/6 sashes, 6/3 at second floor with 6/6 in basement to right-hand side. Central 3 bays aligned with flanking bays. Central doorcase is at basement level and has simple quoined ashlar surround with simple entablature with a projecting keyblock. Left side of central bay partly covered by later projecting brick flat roofed extension rising to second floor with mostly paired 6/6 sashes. Left flanking bays covered to first floor with projecting brick flat-roofed extension with C20 garage doors. INTERIOR: generally very richly decorated in early C18 style and mostly intact. Notable features include: entrance hall and staircase hall divided by an internal colonnade of 3 rusticated arches, has highly decorative Italianate plasterwork throughout depicting Imperial busts and classical mythology and is reputed to be by one of the Italian stuccodores, Artari, Bagutti and Vassalli, ornate doorcases with broken apex segmental pediments with inset busts, 10-panelled doors with raised and fielded panels, attached Baroque-style Corinthian columns. The entrance hall features a large chimneypiece and large overmantel richly carved with military emblems and trophies. The staircase and first-floor balustrade is set around a large open well and features an undulating (or serpentine) mahogany handrail starting with a tail on the balustrade end and terminating at the lower newel with a snake's head with a sphere in its jaws, and has alternate pattern carved balusters set on a crested string which in turn features relief carvings of symbols of the arts and various pursuits, set between festoons. Inlaid drawing room with octagonal pattern marquetry floor, tarsia inlay using exotic timber and brass to decorate pilasters, dado, moulded cornice, doorcases with segmental pediments with apex broken by scrolls. Marble carved chimneypiece with mantel shelf supported on termini. Dining room redecorated in the Adam style c1770 with moulded cornice, attached Corinthian columns framing a large curved recess with moulded frieze, carved white marble fireplace with carved keyblock. Drawing room has modillioned carved cornice, Ionic pilasters and columns, complete large raised and fielded panelling, carved shouldered architraves, overmantel with festoons, all in carved oak. Marble fireplace with richly carved frieze and flanking termini. Trompe-l'oeil painted ceiling by Graham Rust. Roof consists of main bordering pitches with 2 infilling inner pitches. Structure of main king-post trusses with subsidiary king-post trusses set above each main truss principal rafter, tenoned purlins and tenoned ridge, now over-roofed in centre with C20 flat lead roof. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Shropshire: Harmondsworth, Middlesex: 1958-: 197; Country Life: 18).





Listing NGR: SO6886075258