Brocksford Hall

Brocksford Hall is a country house about one mile (1.6 km) east of Doveridge village, in the south west corner of Derbyshire county, England. It is a Grade II listed building.^[1]

History

The house was built in 1893 for Charles William Jervis Smith and designed by the Chester architectural practice of Douglas & Fordham.^[1] It has since been used as a school.^[1][2] Students moved to the school after the war. Students had been evacuated into rural Derbyshire. The headmaster of Birkdale School, Mr John Gibson Roberts, moved Birkdale pupils evacuated to Derbyshire into Brocksford Hall School. Birkdale continued at Oakbrook under another headmaster.^[3] The independent preparatory and pre-preparatory boarding school closed in 1994. Magfern Estates purchased the hall and 35 acres (140,000 m²) of the estate in the same year. The buildings were converted into private apartments and houses.^[4]

Architecture

The house was built in Jacobethan style and constructed in Ruabon red brick with much blue brick diapering and Hollington stone dressings.^[1] Externally - the entrance (north) front has five bays, symmetrical in massing, but, not in detail, plus, one further gable to the left. The garden (south) front has three bays, symmetrical in massing, but, not in detail, plus a pyramid roofed water tower to the right. A half timbered gatehouse with clock atop (unlike original architects drawing) leads to the stable yard (quad) where a further half timbered outbuilding can be seen. Internally - there be some jacobean woodwork believed to have come from Fenton Hall, also of note be an eighteenth-century staircase to one side (west) of the entrance hall. [1] It was the last house designed by Douglas on such a large scale.^[5]

See also

• List of houses and associated buildings by John Douglas

References