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]

52°22′24″N 1°59′11″W / 52.3732°N 1.9865°W / 52.3732; -1.9865

References

  1. ↑ "British Listed Buildings". Archived from the original on 31 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 "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. 1 2 3 "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. 1 2 "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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