Reasons for Designation
Wyresdale Park and the associated estate outbuildings and fountain are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* The hall is a good example of a C19 mid-Victorian building executed to a design by the renowned north west architect E. G. Paley
* It is an eclectic mix of styles that contains elements of exuberance, oddity, inventiveness and experimentation both internally and externally
* The hall's original internal layout remains eminently readable and a significant number of original or early features still survive
* The outbuildings illustrate well the range of activities that were undertaken in estate buildings associated with Victorian country houses.
Details
NETHER WYERSDALE
1037/0/10022 SNOWHILL LANE
03-DEC-09 WYRESDALE PARK, ESTATE BUILDINGS AND G
ARDEN FEATURES, FOUNTAIN, WORKSHOP, ST
OREROOMS, TACK ROOM, STABLES, GARAGE,
GUN ROOM, BARNS, SHIPPONS, AND KEEPERS
COTTAGES
II
Country House. 1856-65 by E. G. Paley, with later extensions and outbuildings.
MATERIALS: Sandstone beneath slate roofs.
PLAN: The main hall is predominantly L-shaped with projecting wings to the north and east.
HALL EXTERIOR: The main building is a Gothic Revival design with a front west elevation of eight bays. Access is via an off-centre porch situated in a two-storey gable. Low flanking walls lead to the chamfered doorway beneath a pointed arch that is flanked by narrow windows with similar surrounds. The gable above has a three-light window with tracery to the first floor and a narrow rectangular window to the attic above. The two bays to the right of the entrance have matching chamfered window surrounds to both floors. Between the windows there rises a sloping buttress that fades into the wall at a point between the upper floor windows but is then finished with a projecting carved gablet. Immediately above there is a full dormer. The end bay to the right is narrow and stepped back. To the left of the entrance there is a three-storey stair tower with pairs of two-light mullion windows to all but the upper floor. The lowest mullion windows are within a rectangular surround whilst those above have pointed arches. The upper floor has two narrow pointed-arched windows. The tower is finished with a parapet that is elevated at three of its chamfered corners. The tower's north east corner contains a projecting staircase tower. A smaller, two-storey tower with a narrow window to each floor forms the sixth bay and supports a short buttress reaching to half-height of the main tower's left corner. The seventh bay has a ground-floor stone mullion canted bay window with a three-light mullion window to the upper floor. The eighth bay is the late-C19 north extension and it is gabled with mullion bay windows to both floors.
The left return is relatively plain with a later single-storey lean-to extension and a gable stack that is crow-stepped on its left side.
The rear of the main hall forms three sides of a courtyard. The east-facing elevation is of three bays with the late-Victorian extension forming the right bay which, along with the central bay, is gabled. Access to the extension is via a timber plank door with strap hinges. There is a three-light fanlight above with a moulded lintel datestone beneath a moulded dripstone above this. There are two-light mullion windows adjacent and above with a narrower window to each floor to the right. The central bay has a blocked doorway to the right, a four-light mullion window to the ground floor and an eight-light mullion and transom window to the upper floor. The left bay projects forward and has a two-light pointed arched mullion window in its right return with a chimney stack rising above the gable. Its main elevation has timber-framed windows; that to the ground floor being pointed-arched and of six lights while those to the upper floor have six over two panes and two over two panes. The building's north-facing return is of five bays. The right bay has a single-storey lean to with a partly-glazed panelled door, central window and large roof lights. The elevation above is gabled with a central two-light mullion window. The adjacent bay has timber-framed windows to the ground and first floor with roof dormers and roof lights above. The third bay projects forward to form a substantial wing and is linked to the second bay at first-floor height by a diagonal window. The first floor north west corner of this wing is dominated by a projecting diagonal mock-Tudor window supported on timber brackets. The wing's gable has two small two-light windows at either end on the ground floor. The fourth bay is set back and has a projecting mock-Tudor upper storey with two small centrally-placed windows beneath a hipped roof. Window frames to the ground floor have chamfered surrounds. The fifth bay is a relatively plain single-storey structure beneath a hipped roof topped by a second hipped roof with ventilation windows above part of its apex.
The building's rear elevation is relatively simple, with single-storey projections either side of plain timber-framed windows to both floors of the hall's rear elevation.
The building's south elevation has a single-storey structure to its east end. The main part of the south elevation is of four bays and overlooks the garden. The right bay is gabled with sash windows to both floors and the attic whilst a finial topped by a cross soars from the apex of the roof above. The adjacent bay is stepped back and has a small single-storey addition projecting slightly forward at its right end. An iron veranda runs from this addition and fronts this bay. There are two windows to the ground floor and three to the upper floor with a roof dormer above and an axial chimney stack towards the right end of the bay. The fourth bay has a buttress at its right end and contains mullion windows. The left bay is gabled and projects forward. Its window surrounds have shouldered arches and there is a centrally placed buttress running to attic height.
HALL INTERIOR: The entrance hall has a part-glazed door with decorative leaded glass to its side panels and fanlight. It is illuminated by a first-floor three-light window with tracery and decorative stained glass. Doorways off the hall have shouldered arches with moulded coving above. A drawing room is accessed to the right off the entrance hall whilst a corridor from the entrance hall gives access to other rooms on the right including a dining room, lounge and former nursery, all of which overlook the garden to the south. To the left of the corridor there is a former room, now opened out to form what is virtually an enlarged entrance hall. Part way along the hall there is a two-light mullion former outer window with stained glass, behind which a late-C19 / early-C20 washroom has been built complete with period fixtures and fittings. The corridor gives access to a study, kitchen, a corridor with an array of service bells along one wall, a servants' staircase and a single storey rear range containing some equipment for cleaning and hanging game. Many of these ground floor rooms have a mix of original or early features which include ornate radiators and heating pipes, panelled doors, door furniture and architraves, wall panelling, fireplaces, a kitchen range, encaustic floor tiles, sash and casement windows with fittings, leaded lights and stained glass, bathroom and toilet fittings, mosaic floors, cornicing and skirting. The main staircase off the entrance hall is an open well staircase illuminated by west-facing windows with stained glass edgings and central designs. It has carved newel posts, balusters and handrail. Ornate corbels support the gallery beams and ceiling beams above the entrance hall. The first floor contains a range of bedrooms, some of which are undergoing modernisation. Elsewhere to the rear of the building and on the upper floors the servants' quarters remain. Despite conversion of some of these into separate accommodation some original features still survive including some cupboards and drawers and staircases. From the upper floor a narrow spiral stone staircase gives access outside to the flat roof at the top of the tower.
The late-C19 north range extension that is in separate occupancy has a small hallway and a modernised rear kitchen, a partly-panelled front dining room and a staircase giving access to a bathroom and bedroom. The extension also includes a bay formerly belonging to the original hall that now has a sitting room on the ground floor and two bedrooms above. Windows are a mix of sash and casement throughout and there is much use of leaded lights.
COURTYARD OUTBUILDINGS
Located immediately to the east and north of the main hall are single-storey estate outbuildings, largely stone-built beneath slate roofs, which originally formed a courtyard. They include a former WORKSHOP with a vehicle inspection pit in the floor, a former STOREROOM and a panelled TACK ROOM and STABLE. The area in front of this group of buildings has had an iron and glass canopy supported on iron posts erected to provide shelter. Adjacent is a building that is currently used as a GARAGE; this has had a C20 extension added to its front. On the north side of the former courtyard there is a building housing the former GUN ROOM with a repositioned ornate stone drinking trough adjacent to it. This building has a centrally placed gable end with two-light mullion window overlooking the former courtyard. Rising from the apex of the roof is a clock tower with the clock facing the former courtyard. The clock tower is finished with a leaded pyramid roof on top of which is an iron weather vane. Entrance to the building is from the west and inside there is a small kitchen and a kitchen range.
FARM BUILDINGS
To the north of the courtyard there is a large stone building that is an amalgamation of what were previously separate buildings. Its front elevation faces north. The right hand half of this elevation consists of STABLES and a BARN while the left hand half contains STABLES with a hayloft above. To its rear there are former STABLES and SHIPPONS with additional SHIPPONS within an attached C20 brick extension on its south east side. To the east there is an L-shaped STABLE block on the north side of an access track and STOREROOMS including an apple store with racks on the south side of the track.
COTTAGES
At the east end of this track there are a pair of semi-detached two-storey former keeper's COTTAGES that are gable-fronted with slate-roofed porches to either side of the gables.
On the lawn in the garden to the south of the main hall there is a modest yet ornate FOUNTAIN executed in red sandstone.
HISTORY: Wyresdale Park was built between 1856-65 to a design thought to have been by E. G. Paley at a cost of £50,000 for Peter Ormerod, a Bolton banker. Paley (1823-95) worked for the Lancaster architectural practice of Sharpe, Paley & Austin who worked mostly in north west England on a variety of buildings ranging from churches to railway stations and hospitals. He has over 100 listed buildings to his name.
The Ordnance Survey map of 1892 depicts the main hall with a number of outbuildings and glasshouses located to the north and east. These outbuildings are depicted on the modern map as Home Farm although there does not appear to have been a specific farmhouse building. A north wing was added to the main hall in 1894 and by 1912 a number of additional outbuildings had been added to the north of the existing outbuildings. At an unspecified date the property became a sporting estate and at c 1900 a large lake was created to the east of the buildings. The 1932 OS map indicates that a single-storey lean-to had been added to the north wing and that some of the outbuildings had been demolished, including the west range of buildings that originally formed a courtyard immediately north of the hall. This same map also shows that one of the outbuildings had also been extended. At an unspecified date a glass and iron canopy was erected to partly cover the former courtyard. During the 1960s the M6 motorway was driven through Wyresdale Park grounds to the west of the buildings severing the main drive from the lodge located approximately 700m to the south west. Some late-C19 / early-C20 outbuildings have subsequently been demolished whilst all glasshouses have either been removed or fallen into disrepair. Internally the main hall has had some of its upper storey rooms converted into flats and some of its main rooms are currently undergoing repair and modernisation. The late-C19 north wing is now in separate occupancy.
SOURCES
J. Price, 'Sharpe, Paley and Austin - a Lancaster architectural practice, 1836-1942', (1998).
REASONS FOR DECISION: Wyresdale Park is listed at Grade II and the associated estate outbuildings and fountain are also included for group value for the following principal reasons:
* The hall is a good example of a C19 mid-Victorian building executed to a design by the renowned north west architect E. G. Paley
* It is an eclectic mix of styles that contains elements of exuberance, oddity, inventiveness and experimentation both internally and externally
* The hall's original internal layout is still eminently readable and a significant number of original or early features still survive
* The outbuildings illustrate well the range of activities that were undertaken in estate buildings associated with Victorian country houses.
