Astley Hall

Details

SD 51 NE CHORLEY ASTLEY PARK

5/24 Astley Hall 21.12.1966 (Formerly listed under General) GV I

Manor house, C16 and C17 with early C19 addition; repaired and restored from 1949. Part timber-framed on stone plinth, part brick with stone dressings (now rendered). The earlier building is a courtyard house of arch-braced box-frame construction, of which the north and west ranges survive, while the 2-storey great hall in the south range was rebuilt and refronted in brick with stone dressings, in Renaissance style, at an uncertain date in C17 (Rigold: c.1630; Pevsner: part 1653; Hussey: 1666); and decorated in very elaborate baroque style in later C17. South front is 3 storeys;entrance, offset to the left, is flanked by 2 very prominent 5-sided bays which rise to full height and are glazed on all sides from the plinth through the first 2 storeys; segmental-headed stone doorway has on each side coupled columns with vernacular versions of Ionic capitals and a dentilled entablature to each pair bearing a couchant lion (said to be ex situ); above these are mullioned and transomed windows, which match those of the bays and fill the wall to the same height. Right of the right bay the ground floor has a 10-light mullioned and transomed window with a king mullion, and a cross window, and the 1st floor has smaller mullioned windows similarly disposed. The whole length of the 2nd floor is a long gallery (possibly a later addition?) which has an unbroken band of mullioned and transomed windows continued round the corners to the return walls; the parapet wall above this, which bears 5 blank roundels, is surmounted by a balustrade. The rear (courtyard side) of this range, (2 storeys only) has 2 gables, one of box frame construction on a high stone plinth, the other of brick (on a stone plinth of different masonry) abutting it with roof overlapping; the former has a 1st floor oriel with carved sill, the latter has a large stairlight. West and north ranges are box-framed on stone plinth, 2 storeys, the courtyard side of the former having two 1st floor oriels with carved sills, one dated 1600; in the angle a stair turret open at ground floor; in north range an entrance passage through a bay open at ground floor. Outer wall of west range (which incorporates kitchen) is timber- framed except for very large external chimney stack of brick, outer wall of north range is brick. Contiguous at the north-east corner of the present hall is a smaller building, said to be the original manor house, much altered and restored, apparently in C19, but incorporating some C16 beams. Interior: original features of late C16 house include kitchen fireplace with wide segmental stone arch, and ¼-round moulded beams in north, west, and rear part of south ranges. Features of outstanding interest are principally the moulded plaster decorations of the hall and drawing room in the south range probably Flemish or French work of the later C17: in the hall, a deep frieze, and round and oval cartouches in the coffered panels of the ceiling, heavily foliated and deeply undercut, include swags, putti, cherubs etc. in the drawing room ceiling, fronds, pendant garlands, scallops, cherubs etc; also hall wainscot of pilasters and arched panels painted with figures of famous historical characters up to c1630 (possibly ex situ); unusual late C17 staircase consisting of a single straight flight of diminishing risers, with a pierced leaf scroll balustrade; and C17 panelling, plaster moulding, fireplaces and overmantels in morning room of ground floor and in bedchambers of 1st floor of west range. Some panelling may be ex-situ; house was subject to some C19 restoration, of currently uncertain extent.

(References: Pevsner; VCH; S.E. Rigold: Archaeological Journal 1970; C. Hussey: Country Life 1922).

Listing NGR: SD5745918304

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

357539

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Farrer, W, Brownbill, J, The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, (1914)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Lancashire, (1969)
Country Life in Country Life, (1922)
Archaeological Journal in Archaeological Journal, (1970)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 25 Lancashire,

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