1 88 SHALLCROSS AND YEARDSLEY HALLS. 



The fittings throughout are of massive oak, and the beams 

 are moulded and stopped. Each stall for the horses was 

 entered through an oak archway, upon moulded pillars, and 

 so solid and massive is the workmanship that it looks likely 

 to last a century or two longer. The general design of this 

 is so effective and unusual in stable fittings that at the first 

 glance it suggested the arcading of a hall-screen. 



Although only the foundations of the contemporary hall 

 are left, one may conclude from the evidence of its adjuncts 

 that it must have been of proportionate quality, and perhaps 

 equal to any of its kind and size in the county. 



In the beginning of the eighteenth century the requirements 

 of the owners of Shallcross again necessitated, or, at least, it 

 was thought that they did, the erection of the third hall, which 

 stands to-day in a commanding though more exposed position 

 on the ridge of the hill above, but a little to the east of the 

 earlier halls. 



The existing hall, which is now a summer residence of the 

 owner of Shallcross Manor, Col. E. Cotton-Jodrell, C.B., is 

 an imposing stone building in the Early Georgian style of 

 architecture, and typical of the best of its period. The well- 

 known Ditchley House in Oxfordshire, the seat of Lord Dillon, 

 though more extensive than Shallcross, is singularly like it in 

 design. Indeed, except that Ditchley has a flat roof, which is 

 perhaps a modernization, a photograph of the west front of 

 Ditchley would do almost equally well for the south front of 

 Shallcross ; even the central projection, the door, and the 

 number and position of the windows correspond, and the wall 

 plan, details of cornice and architecture are all identical. It 

 is true that on a close inspection there are differences in some 

 minor respects, such as the detail ornamentation of the door, 

 which, however, closely resembles that to the north front of 

 Shallcross. Ditchley is considered one of the finest works of 

 its architect, the famous James Gibbs. He was born in 1682, 

 and died in 1754, but his best results were in the middle period. 

 Ditchley was commenced about 1720, and completed in 1722. 

 This curious similarity in style between the two houses made 



