Stanford Hall

Details

SP 57 NE WESTRILL AND STARMORE STANFORD PARK

Stanford Hall 7/68 11/01/55 I GV

Country house. By the Smiths of Warwick. Begun 1697 by William Smith for Sir Roger Cave. Decorated and altered by Francis Smith from 1730, decorations continued in 1743 by William Smith the younger. C19 alterations. Brick with ashlared stone dressings. H-plan with double-pile centre. Hipped slate roofs with 4 large brick stacks. 2 storeys, basement and attic. Plinth with moulded set-off course. Moulded 1st floor band. Moulded and modillioned wooden eaves cornice. Stone quoins. South front: ashlared, 9 bays, symmetrical. 2 bay wings to left and right project forward slightly. Central flight of steps with iron railings, leading to doorway, flanked at basement level by single, chamfered, rectangular blocked windows. To left, a square, chamfered, blocked window with central mullion. To right, a similar window with leaded lights. Wings both have 2 similar windows, all with leaded lights except that to far left which is now blocked. Central doorway with shouldered architrave with keystone and moulded segmental pediment supported on moulded brackets, all in stone. C20 glazed double doors. To left and right, 2 glazing-bar sashes with architraves with keystones and aprons with balusters. Above, a central glazing-bar sash with architrave with mask in place of keystone and elongated scrolls with fruit, to either side. Apron with balusters and panels. To left and right, 2 sashes similar to those below. Wings each have 2 glazing-bar sashes on piano nobile and 2 above, all with architraves and aprons in the form of bolection moulded panels. Attic storey has 3 dormers with triangular pediments, above central 5 bays, and single dormers on the wings with segmental pediments, all with glazing-bar sashes. East front: plainer, brick with stone dressings. 7 bays, symmetrical. Ashlared basement, with 2 windows similar to south front. All other windows are glazing-bar sashes; 6 on the piano nobile with architraves and triangular pediments. 7 above, with architraves, sills on brackets, and bolection cornices. 2 dormers with triangular pediments. Central doorway on piano nobile, with moulded doorcase with triangular pediment and part-glazed door with over-light. This is reached via a large, late C19 double flight stairway, heavily balustraded, with basement level doorway flanked by single oeil-de-boeuf windows, all rusticated and set below a heavily rusticated segmental band. Plainer west front. North front plainer still, with markedly projecting wings. Basement windows and 4 dormers as on south front. Main storey have glazing-bar sashes with cambered arches and plain sills. 2 C19 extruded corner bays in brick added to recessed centre. INTERIOR: main staircase 1730, cantilevered, open string, 3 balusters per tread, alternating turned, fluted column on vase, and barley sugar twist. Moulded, ramped, and wreathed handrail. Fluted newels. Panelled dado and moulded dado rail. Panelled staircase hall with ornate plasterwork ceiling. Earlier dog-leg staircase, c1700, closed string, turned balusters, moulded rail, and newels with balls. Panelled dado. Ballroom, created 1743. Coved ceiling with Rococo decoration at corners and heavily moulded cornice. Moulded wall frames, ornate chimneypiece with satyr terms and triangular pediment, all by John Wright of Worcester. Ceiling painted 1880 by Felix Joubert. Library, and several other rooms panelled, with good chimneypieces, moulded cornices, and 6-panel doors. Stanford Hall is a variant of the type introduced with Pratt's Clarendon House (1660s). J Lees- Milne, English Country Houses: Baroque 221-226 (1970); CL CXXIV, 1284, 1410, 1472, (1958); J Nichols, History of Leicestershire, IV, i, 350(1897); J Throsby, Views in Leicestershire p. 179 (1789); (Buildings of England: Leicestershire p. 384).

Listing NGR: SP5874079309

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

191487

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Milne, J L, English Country Houses Baroque 1685-1715, (1970), 221-226
Pevsner, N, Williamson, E, The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland, (1984), 384
Country Life in Country Life, (1958)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 26 Leicestershire,

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry