Cofton Hall

Cofton Hall is a country house on the Lickey Hills near Cofton Hackett, in the Bromsgrove District of north east Worcestershire, England.[1] It is a Grade II* listed building.[2]

Most of the original 14th century building has been destroyed, by a deliberate fire during the English Civil War after a visit by King Charles I, however the hall with a hammer-beam roof survives. The rest of the building was constructed in the 18th century.

History

The 14th century Hall was originally a timber framed house. The stone walls were added in the Victorian era.[3]

King Charles I stayed at the hall on the night of 14 May 1645 as guest of the owner, Thomas Jolliffe, during the English Civil War.[4] The following day, before marching to Chester on 15 May, the Royalist soldiers set the Hall ablaze to prevent it falling into the hands of the Parliamentarian Army.[5] Only the great hall survived.[6]

Architecture

The three-storey six-bay building has a tiled roof.[2] The entrance has a portico with two doric columns.[2] The west wing encloses the hall with a hammer-beam roof.[7] The old hall is 38 feet (12 m) long and 21 feet (6.4 m) wide. The roof has nine hammer-beams with spandrel brackets.[8] These rest on octagonal corbels of wood.[4] Each side of the roof has three compartments divided by purlins.[4]

Beneath the house, and extending beyond their walls are a series of corridors and chambers, totalling more than 200 feet (61 m). This includes a series of "streams", one brick wide and one brick high, which provide a cooling system to three of the chambers. These drain into a sump about 100 yards (91 m) from the house.[9]

The area around the house are the remains of the foundations of older buildings.[7]

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References
  1. "British Listed Buildings". Archived from the original on 2019-07-31. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
  2. "Cofton Hall". National Heritage List for England. Historic England. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  3. Dargue, Bill. "Cofton Cofton Common, Cofton Hackett, Cofton Richard/s, Cofton Walteri, Coston". A History of Birmingham Placenames. Bill Dargue. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  4. "Parishes: Coston or Cofton Hackett Pages 54-57 A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 3". British History Online. Victoria County History. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  5. The Manor set fire Archived 15 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "RACTER APPRAISAL JULY 2018 presented by the ndp steering group COFTON HACKETT CHARACTER APPRAISAL DRAFT – JULY 2018" (PDF). Cofton Hackett Parish Council. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  7. "Cofton Hackett Parish Plan 2007". Worcestershire County Council. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  8. Brooks, Alan; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2007). Worcestershire. Yale University Press. p. 236. ISBN 9780300112986.
  9. "The mysterious cellars of Cofton". The Village. Archived from the original on 15 September 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
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