Hackness Hall and railings attached to terrace on garden front

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 15 November 2024 to reformat the text to current standards

SE 9790
11/52

HACKNESS
HACKNESS TO SUFFIELD ROAD (south side)
Hackness Hall and railings attached to terrace on garden front

13.12.51

GV
I
Country house. 1791-96 (date on pediment); extension wings and new entrance added in 1810; gutted by fire in 1910 and restored by Walter Brierley. By Colvin or Peter Atkinson (sen). For Sir Richard Van den Bempde-Johnstone. Sandstone ashlar with slate roofs.

Entrance front: two storey, seven bay front, the three centre bays pedimented and breaking forward: single-storey projecting porch. Lower two storey L-shaped wing to left. Fluted Doric columns in antis enriched with rosettes flank double doors of raised and fielded panelling in pedimented porch. Overdoor panel carved with oak leaf garland, and winged spur crest of the Johnstone family with similar garland to porch pediment. Tripartite sash to first floor centre, with Ionic columns, frieze carved with swags and segmental pediment. Twelve-pane sashes to remaining ground and first floor windows in raised architraves with modillion cornices: friezes pulvinated to ground floor. Ground-floor sill band. Raised band with guilloche moulding to first floor beneath blind balustrades to each window. First floor sill band. Dentilled eaves beneath modillion cornice. Balustraded parapet obscures shallow hipped roof. Raised oval panel to pediment, surrounded by oak fronds surmounted by an owl. Inscription on panel reads: "Peace be within these walls 1796"

Garden front: two storey, seven bay front, with lower two storey, seven bay extension wing to right. The three centre bays of the main front break forward and form a pedimented tetrastyle centrepiece with fluted and enriched Ionic pilasters of the giant order. The tympanum contains an escutcheon in high relief surmounted by a winged spur, between oak fronds. Glazed door to centre beneath pedimented doorhood on incised consoles. Twelve-pane sashes throughout, in similar surrounds to those on entrance front. Other details are repeated from the entrance front. End right and right and left of centre stacks.

Extension wing: repeats on a smaller and plainer scale the arrangement of the garden main front. Central part-glazed door with raised and fielded lower panels with fluted borders. Circular panel with a winged spur to tympanum of pediment. Shallow hipped roof.
West front: two storey, three bay front, the centre bay a full-height three window canted bay. Twelve-pane sashes in Venetian surrounds flank the bay window, in the Doric order to ground floor and the Ionic, with segmental pediments, to first floor. Twelve-pane sashes to bay window in similar surrounds to those on the entrance and garden fronts. Other details are repeated similarly.

Railings to terrace: comprise alternate cast-iron panels of anthemion mouldings and twisted balusters, with Greek key band at the bottom and Vitruvian scroll at the top.

Interior: in the octagonal room to left of the staircase hall is an C18 Ionic fireplace with fluted attached columns and entablature with rinceau mouldings to the frieze on each side of a raised panel carved with putti. Two round-arched rectangular recesses with bands of guilloche mouldings survived the 1910 fire. Restoration work by Brierley includes a detailed reconstruction of the drawing room; a cantilevered staircase with fine wrought-iron balustrade; and a fireplace in the new dining room, incorporating a panel carved with oak fronds.

References: C Hussey, "Hackness Hall, Scarborough", in Country Life, March 1921. N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, The North Riding, 1966, p 181. G B Wood, Historic Homes of Yorkshire, p112. York Georgian Society, The Works in Architecture of John Carr, 1973 p112. H Colvin Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1978 p 72.

Listing NGR: SE9711790521

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

327371

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
The Works in Architecture of John Carr, (1973), 14
Wood, GB, Historic Homes of Yorkshire, (), 112
Colvin, H M, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1978), 72
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The North Riding, (1966), 181
Country Life in Country Life, (1921)

End of official list entry