Owston Hall

Details

SE 8000-8100 OWSTON FERRY STATION ROAD (west side, off)

21/145 Owston Hall (formerly listed as 1.3.67 Owston Ferry Hall)

GV II

Wrongly marked as Nos 20 and 22 on Ordnance Survey map. House. Mid C18 with earlier C18 origins and late C18 - early C19 alterations; C19 and C20 alterations and additions. Brick, rendered to south front, whitewashed to remainder. Concrete tile roof to main range; pantile roof to east wing; Main range has double-depth plan with 2-room, central entrance-hall north and south fronts; C18 2-room east wing with lobby entry to north front and stair turret to south behind screen wall linked to C19 outbuilding which is not of special interest. Main range: 2 storeys with attic, with lower 2- storey east wing. North front: irregular fenestration, with 5 first-floor windows. Entrance to right of centre has stone step with moulded nosing to fine Doric doorcase with engaged fluted columns with acanthus capitals, figured frieze with griffons on the dosserets, and central urn flanked by festoons, beneath moulded cornice and modillioned pediment. C19 half-glazed door with margin lights in reveal. Late C19 - early C20 canted bay window to right with plate-glass sashes, pilasters, entablature with plain frieze, bracketed hood and hipped roof. Two 12-pane sashes to left, one beneath a segmental brick arch, the other slightly larger, inserted beneath a flat brick arch. 2-course brick first-floor band. First floor: three 12-pane sashes to left beneath segmental arches, C19 plate-glass sash with margin lights in similar surround above entrance, tripartite sash to right with central 12-pane and flanking 8-pane sashes beneath a segmental arch. All sashes in C18 flush wooden architraves with sills. Stepped eaves. Double- span roof with tumbled-in brick to gables and later brick-coped parapet to valley. C20 rebuilt corniced end stacks. East wing: 3 first-floor windows. Entrance to left of centre has flight of 3 semicircular steps to 6-flush- panelled door beneath segmental arch flanked by single 12-pane sash to left, pair of similar sashes to right in reveals with sills beneath segmental arches. Similar sashes to first floor. Axial stack. South front: 6 first- floor windows, symmetrical. Unsympathetic C20 brick entrance porch over twin C19 doorways with half-glazed fielded-panel doors with margin lights in architraves flanking a central half-domed niche. Single C19 full-length ground-floor canted bay windows to each side, renovated c1986, with flights of 3 stone steps to central French windows with glazing bars, single side lights, panelled friezes and hipped asphalt roofs. Late C19 four-pane first-floor sashes in earlier flush wooden architraves with sills beneath panelled and keyed stucco flat arches. Moulded wooden eaves cornice. East wing and adjoining screen wall set back to right, with single 4-pane sashes to each floor in similar surrounds to main range, stone-coped parapet and wall ramped down to square-section pier to left with truncated stone finial. Interior. Good details, largely late C18 - early C19 but incorporating some earlier features. Main range. Entrance hall: moulded dado rail, elliptical arch to stairhall with moulded capitals, archivolt and moulded-panel soffit, ornate plasterwork cornice. Stairhall: fine open-well cantilevered staircase, perhaps C19, in early-mid C18 style, with profiled cheek-pieces, hardwood balustrade with ramped and wreathed ridged and corniced handrail, slender twist-on-vase balusters, square panelled newel posts with pendant drops, and a massive, ornately-carved bulbous foot-newel with bold gadrooning, acanthus leaf and cable moulding; moulded dado rail; ornate plaster cornice with open-work foliate mouldings, and fine plasterwork ceiling with central oval design of garlands and scrolled foliage, and corner groups of musical instruments, cornucopia etc in lyre-shaped foliate figures with fronds and ribbons. Moulded elliptical-arched opening to upper stairhall. All ground-floor rooms have ornate plasterwork friezes and cornices, the eastern rooms also with spine beams with moulded panelled soffits. Fine composition chimney-piece to south-east room with twin slender fluted columns, foliate capitals, dosserets and panelled frieze with fronds, garlands, swags, etc beneath ornate cornice. First floor: south- east room has late C18 foliate plasterwork frieze and cornice, and fine composition chimney-piece with floral drops and acanthus capitals to the pilasters, panelled frieze with arcadian figures and festoons, ornate cornice, original marble slips and decorated cast-iron duck's-nest grate; south-west room has moulded cornice, spine beam with fielded-panel soffit, early-mid C18 stone chimney-piece with panelled pilasters and frieze with fluted key, later ornate cast-iron grate, flanked by fielded-panel alcoves with 6-fielded-panel doors; north-west room has moulded cornice, plain stone chimney-piece flanked by 6-fielded-panel doors with L-hinges; north-east room has moulded cornice, mid C18 wooden chimney-piece with eared architrave, pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice, ornate cast-iron grate, flanked by fielded-panel alcoves with 6-fielded-panel doors. Plaster floors to attic. Moulded skirting, fielded-panel window shutters, 6-fielded-panel doors in architraves throughout. East wing: good open-well closed-string staircase of 1700-20 with corniced handrail, turned balusters and plain newel-posts; fielded-panelled chimney-piece to west room with segmental arch over inserted C20 fire surround, flanked by 6-fielded-panel doors in panelled surround with L-hinges; late C18 - C19 moulded cornices to both main rooms. The east wing staircase has similarities with that in Epworth Old Rectory (qv) dated to 1709. A distinguished house, marred by C19 - C20 alterations, but retaining some very fine interior details. Adjoining ranges to the east are not of special interest. N Pevsner and J Harris, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 1978, p 334.

Listing NGR: SE8074100129

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

165209

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Harris, J, Antram, N, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, (1989), 334

End of official list entry

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