Copgrove Hall

Details

SE 36 SW COPGROVE BURTON LEONARD ROAD (north side, off)

3/12 Copgrove Hall

GV II

Country house. c1820 for Henry or Thomas Duncombe. Ashlar and gritstone, grey slate roof. A square block of 2 storeys with basement and 5 x 7 bays, built on a sloping site so that the rear and 2 projecting north service wings are of 3 and 4 storeys. The 3 main facades all have features of importance. Sash windows with glazing bars, slightly projecting stone sills and plain lintels throughout. The ground-floor windows are much larger than those to first floor. East (entrance) front: 3 central bays recessed, central glazed door flanked by sashes under an enclosed single-storey portico with Tuscan columns in antis, moulded cornice and blocking course to entablature. Central first-floor blind recess with flanking sashes. The flanking bays project and have sashes flanked by narrow 8-pane windows to each floor. Moulded eaves cornice, blocking course, shallow-pitch hipped roofs with large stacks straddling ridge to left and right of centre. The recessed 5-bay service range to right has one 6-panel door and 2 glazed doors with overlights, 9-pane sashes to first floor. The rear (west) facade has a central glazed door with 6-pane overlight, flanking sashes and segmental 2-storey bows to either side with sashes flanked by narrow windows as east front. Left return (south front): 7 bays, with wide central bay. Central 7-panelled double doors with a 6-pane overlight and narrow flanking windows, all under a segmental Tuscan porch with deep entablature, moulded cornice and blocking course. The central first-floor window is flanked by narrow blind recesses. Rear: the 2 projecting service wings have doors opening into the rear yard; the west side of the east wing has an open 4- arch arcade at ground level; the windows are of 12, 9 and 6 panes; some are blind recesses. The rear of the house, between the wings, is 4 storeys, the ground floor with C20 garages. Interior: many original features remain, including 6-panel pine doors, window shutters, plasterwork and fireplaces in a variety of stones. The entrance hall has a fireplace of green veined marble, ceiling frieze with acanthus leaves and Greek key motifs and doors in fluted architraves. The dining room on the west side has a black marble fireplace with Tuscan columns and the ceiling cornice is decorated with oak leaf and vine motifs. The drawing room facing north has an elaborate white marble fireplace inset with veined brown marble plaques and carved flowers and fruit. The ceiling frieze has roses and acanthus leaves and the plasterwork of wall panels and dado has been recently restored at time of resurvey. The classical architraves are fluted, with paterae and broken pediments with dosserets. The 2 service wings each have a service stair, one sealed off, with plain balusters. The centre of the house is taken up by a very large stair hall top lit by a lantern with casement windows. The cantilevered stone stairs have a cast-iron balustrade with circle motifs. The balustrade continues round a first-floor gallery on 3 sides, with 3 round arches on each side. The 6-panel doors to first floor are reeded to look like double doors, the architraves are fluted, with shallow pyramids instead of paterae; thelanding and bedroom ceiling cornices have egg-and- dart and bead-and-leaf decorations. Several fine first-floor fireplaces of black and grey fossiliferous limestone; moulded brackets support deep mantel shelves. The memorials in Copgrove Church (qv) show that Henry Duncombe (d1818) was the third son of Sir Thomas Duncombe of Duncombe Park. Duncombe Park passed to a nephew Thomas Brown who changed his name to Duncombe (d1874). A James Brown was at Copgrove in c1860 and his daughter Mary married Thomas Shiffner (d1873). Their daughter Emily married Francis Bridgeman who died 1929. The close association with Duncombe Park is of interest because that house burnt down in 1879 and was rebuilt behind the surviving early C18 facade in 1891. It is possible that fittings from Duncombe may have come to Copgrove in the later C19.

Listing NGR: SE3426163386

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

331769

Legacy System:

LBS

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