Howsham Hall

Details

HOWSHAM MAIN STREET SE 76 SW (north end) 5/67 Howsham Hall 20.9.51 GV I

Country house, now school. c1610 with earlier origins, with alterations to east front c1709 and refurbishment of interior during 1770's. Jacobean work for Sir William Bamburgh; east front for Sir John Wentworth; late C18 refurbishment for Nathaniel Cholmley, possibly by John Carr or Peter Atkinson. Limestone ashlar with brick servants' wing, Westmorland slate roofs. U-shaped plan with servants wing forming fourth side of square to rear. South front in Jacobean Renaissance style. 2 storeys and cellar, 7 bays including projecting full height central porch and canted outer bays. Double door beneath radial fanlight in architrave flanked by paired Ionic columns on pedestals carrying plain entablature, with paired Corinthian columns above flanking single-transomed 4-light mullion window and panel bearing arms of Sir William Bamburgh impaling those of his wife, Mary Forthe of Butley, Suffolk. Otherwise double-transomed 4-light mullion windows, except for 12-light windows to canted bays arranged 2:2:4:2:2. Parapet with merlons and ball finials to each main front. West front, probably Elizabethan in date with alterations to right, is of 3 storeys with Tudor- arched doorway and irregular fenestration of 2-light and 4-light double- chamfered mullion and transom windows with flat hood-moulds, those to right in wooden frames. East front: 2 storeys, 6 bays. 15-pane unequal sashes to ground floor, 18-pane sashes to first floor. Series of lead downpipes to each front, ornamented with pendants of fruit, and Wentworth griffins and leopard's heads, one to west front dated 1709. Servants' wing to rear: 2 storeys, 7 bays with Venetian windows to outer bays and casements and fixed windows throughout. Dentilled eaves course and hipped roof with ridge stacks. Interior: main hall has 2 Roman Doric columns in place of former screen dividing entry from hall proper, which has entablature with frieze of fret pattern and bucrania. To left of hall, the assembly room has richer decoration, with Ionic pilasters along the wall carrying frieze with anthemion and candelabra motifs, and Corinthian columns to mullions of bay window. Fireplace of white and verde antico marble with frieze of ribbon ornament, attributed to Fisher of York. Staircase hall to rear of main hall has open-string staircase with slim turned balusters, supported on Tuscan columns. Dining room (now a classroom): earlier decoration, probably contemporary with remodelling of east front. Heavy panelling to dado level, with acanthus cornice and doorcases comparable to those at Beningborough Hall and possibly by Thornton. First-floor saloon has fine Adam-style stucco ceiling, and an inlaid marble fireplace. In the west range is an early kitchen, now a study, with 2 large Tudor-arched fireplaces. One bedroom contains original William Morris wallpaper. Country Life, April 1905. Country Life, August 1935. Pevsner N, Yorkshire, York and the East Riding, 1972.

Listing NGR: SE7341863134

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

328771

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire - York and the East Riding, (1972)
Country Life in April, (1905)
Country Life in August, (1935)

End of official list entry

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