Barlaston Hall

Barlaston Hall is an English Palladian country house in the village of Barlaston in Staffordshire, on a ridge overlooking the valley of the River Trent to the west, about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Stoke-on-Trent, with the towns of Stone about 4 miles (6.4 km) to the south, and Stafford about 11 miles (18 km) south (grid reference SJ894391).

It was bought by the Wedgwood pottery company in 1937, but disrepair and subsidence due to coal mining brought the hall close to demolition in the early 1980s. It was bought for £1 by a trust set up by SAVE Britain's Heritage and restored. It has returned to use as a private residence. The hall is a Grade I listed building.

Barlaston Hall was probably designed by architect Sir Robert Taylor for Thomas Mills, an attorney from Leek, in 1756-8, to replace the existing manor house that he had acquired through marriage. The hall has a red-brick exterior, and is one of a few of Taylor's buildings which retain his trademark octagonal and diamond glazing in the sash windows.

From the entrance court, a flight from steps leads up to a central doorway with pilasters and segmental pediment. The doorway provides access to a central Doric hall which opens on to two of the three main reception rooms and an inner hall with domed skylight containing a cantilevered staircase leading to a galleried landing on the first floor, and further stairs giving access to the second upper floor and attic. Services are within a lower ground floor or basement level. The gardens and grounds of about 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) were landscaped by William Sawrey Gilpin. The house is located beside the parish church of St John the Baptist (now deconsecrated).

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