Listed Building: DELVES HALL (1330165)

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