Moor Park

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 28 May 2024 to correct a typo in the name, address and description and to reformat the text to current standards

SE 25 SE
7/58

PANNAL
Beckwithshaw
KILLINGHALL ROAD (west side, off)
Moor Park

GV
II

Country house. 1859 by Andrews and Delauney for James Bray. Coursed squared gritstone and ashlar, graduated grey slate roof. In a flamboyant classical-Jacobean style of two storeys and five x four bays with a recessed bay to right facing east. Central three-storey tower with central eight-panel double doors with fanlight flanked by paired Ionic columns supporting an entablature carrying an openwork balustrade, oriel window above and three round-arched lights to each side to top storey. Bracketed cornice and openwork balustrade. This central bay is ornamented with relief mouldings of strapwork, vermiculated ashlar and Classical motifs. Bays two and four have round-arched windows, the outer bays have mullion and transom windows of four lights, in two-storey canted bay to left. The roof line is decorated with Dutch-style gables. Three fluted stacks to rear of ridge, bays one and five; an ornate octagonal cupola with round-arched openings and ogee-roof to right. The left return (facing south) has two-storey canted bay windows to bays one and three; bay four is flanked by attached octagonal shafts and, like bay one, has a Dutch gable.

Interior: the small entrance lobby opens into a fine staircase hall with polychrome floor tiles; the massive cantilevered staircase of two straight flights with gallery has Jacobean style arcaded balusters; the hall ceiling is coved and decorated with strapwork plaster panels. The ceiling is glazed, with the glass painted in yellow and black. The ground- floor south and east rooms have massive four- and six-panel doors in doorcases decorated with Classical motifs and strapwork; a fine stone fireplace in the south room is decorated with a lion crest and angels and has a marble mantelshelf. Ceilings have remains of deep moulded cornices and main rooms have wooden architraves to the windows. The tower is lined with pine boarding and has turned balusters. First floor and attic rooms also retain original ceiling cornices, fireplaces and cupboarding. The main rooms divided by partitions at the time of resurvey.

James Bray was an iron and brass founder from Leeds who obtained the contract for building the Leeds and Thirsk (1849) and the Wharfedale Railways. He bought the Moor Park estate of 227 acres in 1848 and completed the house at a cost of ?8,000. In 1869 the estate was sold to Joseph Nussey MP, a Leeds woollen manufacturer and in 1882 it was bought by Dr and Mrs Williams. It remained with the Williams family until c1950. Unoccupied at time of resurvey. The central tower with round-headed windows and the balustrades are in the style of the campanile at Osborne House, Queen Victoria's Marine Residence on the Isle of Wight, completed in 1850 and a great influence on the villas and country houses of the period. Harrogate Advertiser June 29, 1974; L Popplewell Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors of North England 1830-1914, c1970.

Listing NGR: SE2584453224

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

331562

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Popplewell, L, Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors of North England 1830-1914, (1970)
Harrogate Advertiser in 29 June, (1974)

End of official list entry

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