Browsholme Hall

Details

SD 64 NE BOWLAND FOREST LOW BROWSHOLME

14/7 Browsholme Hall 16.11.1954 GV I

House, early C17th, with early C18th east wing, west cross-wing rebuilt 1805 to designs by Jeffry Wyatt and dining room added in 1807. Sandstone ashlar, the cross-wings rusticated, with slate roof. H-plan. 3 storeys. The central recessed part of the facade of 6 bays. The ground-floor windows have reconstructed architraves, a continuous drip course now partly missing, and mullions and transoms reinstated in the C19th. The 1st floor windows are sashed with glazing bars, those to bays 1, 2 and 6 being tripartite, and have a continuous drip course. The 2nd floor windows have individual hoods and original square mullions with grooved faces. The 4th bay, between the columns of the portico, has a cross window. The portico is of 3 storeys, its 2 sets of paired columns being inaccurate versions of the classical orders. The doorway has a moulded surround with semi-circular head. A plain parapet of mid C18th date replaces gabled attic dormers shown on Buck's drawing of c.1720. The east cross-wing has a drip course over the ground and 1st floor windows, which are tripartite with central sashes with glazing bars. On the 2nd floor s a 5-light mullioned window with hood. The attic window is now blocked and contains a clock. The gable has a coping with bellcote. The rebuilt west wing is of 2 storeys having a large tripartite sashed window on each floor, with glazing bars, plain stone surround, square mullions, and hood. Set back to the west is a single-storey dining room, with a similar window, and a shaped gable with coat of arms and date '1807'. Adjoining towards the rear of the east cross-wing is a wing containing the kitchen shown incomplete in Buck's drawing of c.1720 and having sashed windows with glazing bars and architraves, some with false keystones. It has projecting quoins and a stone gutter cornice. 2 adjoining bars of the main house are treated in a similar way, one having a door with 'EPI 1711' set over it. At the rear several minor wings project, including one from the C17th partly converted into a chapel in the late C19th by the addition of some gothic windows and a porch turret with plaque 'IPB 1897', but never completed. Interior: The dining room, in the western part of the main block, has diagonal panelling of c.1620 taken from Park Head near Whalley. The overmantel of 1584 once belonged to the Towneleys of Hapton Tower. The drawing room of 1805 by Wyatt has Elizabethan detailing, an early date for its revival. The dining room ceiling of 1807 is also by Wyatt. The ante room at the rear of the west wing has an overmantel said to have come from the old library. The early C18th east wing has a kitchen fireplace with 3 segmental arches, the right-hand one narrower, with fluted keystones. The stair to this wing is of 4 flights, with open string, turned newels and balusters, the latter alternately fluted, and ramped handrail. The main stair has an open well, square newels, open string and one turned baluster to each tread. It is lit by a window containing stained glass of various dates from before 1500 to the C19th, some said to have come from Whalley Abbey. On the 1st floor is the Oak Drawing Room with elaborately carved panelling of c.1700. The Yellow Room, Velvet Room and Oak Bedroom have panelling either made or-embellished by Richard Alston, estate carpenter, at the end of the C19th. (Jervis, Simon, Browsholme Hall. English Life Publications, 1980. Description of Browsholme Hall, London, 1815. Buck, Samuel, Yorkshire Sketchbooks. Reproduced in facsimile, Wakefield, 1979.

Listing NGR: SD6842445248

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

183058

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Description of Browsholme Hall, (1815)
Hall, I, Samuel Bucks Yorkshire Sketch Book, (1979)
Jervis, S, Browsholme Hall, (1980)

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