Denton Hall and Attached Forecourt Walls and Railings

Details

DENTON DENTON PARK SE 14 NW 9/22 Denton Hall and attached forecourt walls and 6.2.52 railings (formerly listed as Hall) GV I

Country house, now management training centre and offices. 1778 by John Carr for Sir James Ibbetson, restored 1976. Ashlar, grey slate roofs, wooden cupolas with lead domes; wrought-iron gates and railings. A Palladian mansion composed of a main block of 2 storeys with basement and 9 x 7 bays with flanking 2-storey pavillions of 3 x 4 bays, each flanked by former open yards, linked to main block by curved single-storey corridors. A chamfered plinth to the main block, basement storey, continues through to the pavillions at ground-floor window-sill level. Facade, main block (south front): 6 steps with low flanking walls to a terrace in front of the centre 3 bays; 2 more steps to the glazed double doors in architrave with bolection moulding and segmental dentilled pediment. Flanking sash windows with glazing bars have similar architraves and pediments, and a blind balustrade with vase balusters beneath. The 3 outer windows each side are similar but with triangular pediments. Moulded sill band. 9-pane sashes in architraves to first floor. The central 3 bays have giant Ionic columns with crowning cornice and modillioned pediment, deep modillioned eaves cornice and balustraded parapet. Hipped roof. 9 regularly-spaced multi-flue corniced ridge stacks: 2 flank central 3 bays, 2 to sides and 3 along rear ridge. Attached to front, low balustraded forecourt walls with gate piers to sides, approximately 2.5 metres high with recessed panels, dentilled cornices and flat caps topped by C20 lamps, plus scrolled ironwork gates. Railings and flight of stone steps to front. Facade of pavilions: both have sashes with glazing bars to ground floor and 9-pane sashes above. A projecting first- floor band follows the line of the coping to the link-wall with the main block. Modillioned eaves cornice, hipped roofs with cupolas: base having roundels for clock faces and attached corner columns; Doric columns support entablature and dome; the left dome surmounted by a weather-vane. 2 lateral stacks to west pavilion, 4 to east. Each pavilion has an outer flanking wall, formerly enclosing an open yard; that to the right is roofed over. The west (left) pavilion yard wall has a wrought-iron gate in eared architrave. Linking walls to main house: west side is obscured by a glazed corridor with pointed domed skylight; the east wall has a plain C20 door in an architrave with cornice flanked by pilasters. Rear, main block: steps down to basement entrance bay 3. The central 3 bays project slightly and are crowned by a triangular pediment. Round-headed sashes with glazing bars to ground floor with moulded sill band, square-headed to first floor. Plain entablature, deep moulded cornice and blocking course. Pavilions: left (east); flanking ramped yard walls have sashes flanked by small round lights; right (west) - frames with leaded lights to ground floor, sashes with glazing bars above; flanking ramped yard walls each have a 6-panel door. Left return, main block: central 3 bays canted; sashes with glazing bars to ground floor linked by a moulded sill band; 9-pane sashes to first floor. Cornice and parapet as front. The ground-floor left window (now a door) obscured by the glazed single-storey corridor. Right return, main block: as left, but the plinth is pierced by 7 sash windows to basement. Side elevations of pavilions have ground floors obscured by walls, first floors have sashes with glazing bars. Interior: the 5 ground-floor rooms have Adam-style plasterwork, 6-panelled doors in elaborate architraves and internal window shutters. The principal rooms comprise: entrance hall with 4 wooden Ionic columns in antis, fireplace with fluted surround to left and a round-arched recess with mirror right; plaster ceiling with profile busts of emperors; drawing room, ground floor left: marble fireplace with stag in relief, overmantel with fluted Corinthian columns, broken pediment enclosing urn with vine leaf swags; plaster ceiling; former dining room ground floor, right: fireplace in white and dark green marble has oval plaques with classical figures representing music and dancing, ceiling plastered with urns, swags and scrolls; the breakfast room, east side, centre: reached through an anti-room with carved doors to dining room and service areas, apsidal ends, with arched recesses containing mahogany side boards supported by paired fluted Doric columns, plaster ceiling; staircase hall and lady's dressing room (now board room) west side, centre: fine cantilevered spiral staircase with wrought-iron scrolled balustrade and domed plastered ceiling; the rear range of rooms was altered in the C19 when a stone fireplace wasp inserted into the library, the overmantel incorporating 5 late medieval carved figures of the Madonna and child, and saints. The room contains linen-fold panelling, a coffered ceiling with carved bosses, a deeply- moulded cross beam where an original dividing wall was removed. First-floor rooms not examined at resurvey. West pavilion: formerly housing the wash house, laundry, hot and cold baths and dressing room, it was converted into a ballroom in the late C19 - early C20 with Gothick-arched windows and strapwork ceiling; the Jacobean-style fireplace has coats of arms over vine scrolls. East pavilion; formerly the kitchen block, this has been converted into a lecture hall. Denton Hall is associated with the Fairfax family, the second Lord Fairfax being the leader of the Parliamentary forces in the Civil Wars. The old hall stood on higher ground to the north of the present site. The estate was sold by the widow of Thomas Fairfax to James or Henry Ibbetson of Red Hall near Leeds and a new house was built in 1734 after the earlier building was burnt down. The present house, built in 1778, was the seat of Sir Henry Ibbetson, bart, in 1802. In 1976 the estate was bought by N G Bailey and Co Ltd and the house was converted into a management training centre. G Richardson, New Vitruvius Britanicus, London 1802, Plate LIV; H Speight, Upper Wharfedale, 1900, p 172.

Listing NGR: SE1476548694

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

331415

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Speight, H, Upper Wharfedale, (1900), 172
New Vitruvius Britannicus in New Vitruvius Britannicus, (1808)

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