Conservation repairs at Hoar Cross Hall Spa Hotel

Hoar Cross Hall, Listed Grade II, is located approximately 9 miles west of Burton-upon-Trent and is set in its own extensive landscaped grounds, with a gateway and south boundary wall separately Listed Grade II*. The Hall was built between 1862 and 1871 for the then owner Hugo Francis Meynell Ingram in the Jacobean Style and designed by the architect Henry Clutton as the owner’s family home.

The south garden elevation sits above a symmetrically laid-out terraced garden with sandstone terraces, gravel pathways, low walls, lawns, planting beds and clipped yew hedges. Beyond the gardens are extensive arable fields and woodlands with the spires of Lichfield Cathedral visible in the distance in what was thought originally to be a Capability Brown inspired parkland landscape setting accessed from the gardens.

This south boundary is formed by a ‘ha – ha’ rubble stone retaining wall with a dry ditch, above which a 79 metre long central section of Ashlar masonry upstand parapet wall is formed with a balustrade of 1,150 vertically stacked, back-to-back, decorative buff coloured, octagonal-shaped, terracotta/faience blocks of an alternating design featuring a mythical sea creature and the family initials ‘I M’. The balustrade is capped with a moulded sandstone coping and red sandstone gate piers, enclosing a pair of c.1700 highly decorative wrought iron gates, possibly by the blacksmith Robert Bakewell, believed to have been incorporated into the south boundary gateway when it was constructed in c.1870, some 150+ years later, as set piece design.

Assisted by an Historic England ‘Repair Grant for Heritage at Risk’ conservation repairs and restoration of the south terrace boundary wall, gate piers and decorative wrought iron gate were undertaken. The parapet wall was taken down and completely re-built along with both gate piers, the rubble retaining wall and the balustrade replaced up to 600 or so of the decorative terracotta blocks with exact replicas. The wrought iron gates were removed, repaired & restored by a local specialist historic metalwork conservator.