Ryelands House

Details

LANCASTER

SD4762 OWEN ROAD, Skerton 1685-1/3/342 (West side (off)) 18/02/70 Ryelands House

GV II

Large house, now welfare and social centre. c1836 and 1883. For J Dunn, with substantial additions 1883 by Paley and Austin. Sandstone ashlar, with ashlar dressings. Slate hipped roofs. L-plan within a rectangle. Main range on east-west axis with added wing at west end, various service extensions in the angle between them. Mostly 2 storeys, but with 3-storey tower at north end of wing. Greek Revival style. The symmetrical entrance front (on the east) of 2 storeys and 3 bays has a pedimented tetrastyle porch with feathered Doric capitals to the columns, a frieze decorated with roundels, and a pediment made in a single block. The wide doorway contains a door with glazed round-ended porch, and the overlight has panes of matching design. The flanking bays, which are slightly projected, have first-floor sill bands carried across the centre bay. Tall 12-pane sashed windows at ground floor with plain reveals and shallow raised pediment-shaped cornices above the lintels. The 1st floor has 9-pane sashed windows. Hipped roof of shallow pitch, with projecting eaves, and 2 ridge chimneys flanking the middle bay. Attached at the right-hand end is a small single-storey 3-bay addition with pilasters, a doorway in the 1st bay and a window in the others. The original south facade is of 5 bays, with fenestration matching that of the E elevation. To the left, the added wing, slightly set back, has a projected centre with a large rectangular bay window at ground floor and two 4-pane sashes above. The tripartite west facade has a set-back 3-bay central range, in the centre of which is a prominent 2-storey pedimented bay window, with a pilastered tripartite sashed window on both floors. The windows in the outer bays have moulded architraves, but the opening to the left at ground floor is a doorway to a former conservatory, and in this angle there is now an iron spiral fire escape. At each end of the ridge of this range is a tall chimney. To the left is a square 3-storey tower which has a raised central panel to full height, finished with a pediment above the cornice, and coupled sashed windows at 1st and 2nd floors. A moulded cornice, balustraded parapet with urn finials at the corners, and a low central turret with emphatically swept lead-clad pyramidal roof with ball and spike finial. A bell in an ornamental iron bracket is attached at the left corner of the 1st floor. The north side of the tower has coupled windows on all floors; the east side has a chimney stack serving the kitchen. INTERIOR: large entrance hall with egg-and-dart cornice. Dogleg staircase with very ornate bronze balusters. Marble fireplaces of varied designs. Dining room in west wing has pilasters, modillioned plaster cornice, and pedimented doorcases. Kitchen, at ground floor of tower has double fireplace with surround decorated in Renaissance style. House-keeper's room has original built-in cupboards. HISTORY: built for Mr Jonathan Dunn, twice mayor of Lancaster. In 1874 the estate was purchased by James Williamson (who became Lord Ashton in 1895), who employed Paley and Austin to make various improvements to the estate, including an extension to Ryelands House made in 1883, for which drawings survive. (Ashworth S: The Lino King: York: 1989-).

Listing NGR: SD4758662627

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

383249

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Ashworth, S, The Lino King, (1989)

End of official list entry