Aske Hall, Easby Near Richmond

Description

Pele tower with early additions forming manor house, further extended to form country house, reduced in size during C20 refurbishment. C15 pele tower with C16 hall, C17 wings, early-mid C18 refenestration, 1760s alterations and addition, C19 service ranges mostly removed in 1963-4 when wings were shortened and central hall modified. C15 pele for Aske family, C16 work for Robert Bowes, C17 work for Whartons, early-mid C18 work for Sir Conyers D'Arcy, 1760s work for Sir Lawrence Dundas by John Carr, C19 work by Ignatius Bonomi for the 1st Earl of Zetland, C20 work by Claude Pillimore for the 3rd Marquis of Zetland. Rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings, visible roofs of Westmorland slate. Irregular plan, with U-shaped front formed by wings and hall, with pele tower in right corner and late C18-early C19 Gothick tower in left corner, and with late C18 ranges to rear left and right. South-east elevation: 2 storeys, 1:7:1 bays. Centre range: in centre, C20 single-storey porch, hollow-canted in plan, of banded rusticated ashlar, and with leaved 10-panel door in keyed architrave, cornice and blocking course above; ground-floor windows 15-pane sashes in ashlar architraves with tripartite keystones and sill band; first-floor windows sashes with glazing bars in ashlar surrounds with tripartite keystones except for centre tripartite sash in matching surround; band; parapet with moulded cornice surmounted in centre by coat of arms in strapwork. Left wing: ground-floor Venetian window in C20 ashlar surround with tripartite sash window and sill band; first-floor tripartite sash window in C20 ashlar surround with tripartite keystone; modillion cornice; hipped roof. Right wing: matching elevation except also has basement opening. Right return of left wing: blind but with external stack with inscription commemorating alterations of 1963-4 and modillion cornice. Left return of right wing: 3 storeys, 2 bays; ground-floor windows are 15-pane sashes in architraves with tripartite keystones; first-floor windows are sashes with glazing bars in ashlar surrounds with tripartite keystones; second-floor windows are 6-pane sashes in ashlar surrounds with tripartite keystones; modillion cornice; central stack. Rear: to left, north-west range with, on ground floor, central 6-panel door below 3-pane overlight in architrave with tripartite keystone flanked on each side by a sash window with glazing bars in ashlar surround with tripartite keystone; 1 matching window on first floor, and second-floor 6-pane sash window in matching surround; modillion cornice. To right, south-west range terminates in C20 rubble wall which is blind but with D'Arcy coat of arms in open-pedimented surround on first floor. Between these 2 ranges, C20 single-storey rear hall, and above it 3 first-floor sash windows with glazing bars in ashlar surrounds with tripartite keystones to rear wall of main central front range. Inner return of south-west range: ashlar, by John Carr; to left, staircase projection with round- arched landing window in raised architrave with imposts and tripartite keystone; to right, 2 bays of sash windows with glazing bars in surrounds with tripartite keystones. Left (south-west) return: mainly 2 storeys; 2:3:1:2 bays. First 2 bays: projecting slightly; ashlar; ground-floor sash windows with glazing bars in raised architraves, with sill band, pulvinated friezes and pediments; first-floor 9-pane unequally hung sash windows in architraves on bracketed sills and with cornices; modillion cornice. Third-fifth bays: ashlar; ground-floor sash windows with glazing bars in raised architraves with sill band and cornices on scrolled consoles; first-floor sash windows with glazing bars in architraves with sill band; modillion cornice. Gothick tower: coursed dressed stone; 3 storeys; single bay flanked by three-quarters-round turrets with blind chamfered vents on ground and first floors and blind loop holes on second floor, the sill bands from the central windows continuing round turrets, the whole tower with crenellated parapets, raised over turrets; ground-floor glazed door in ashlar Tuscan surround with modillion cornice and stepped blocking above; first-floor round-arched casement window in ashlar architrave, with paterae in spandrels, and cornice on consoles; second-floor round-arched casement window in Doric surround, the sill on consoles, and with architrave to arch with keystone. Seventh-eighth bays: rubble; ground-floor sash windows with glazing bars in ashlar architraves with sill band, pulvinated friezes and pediments; first-floor 9-pane unequally hung sash windows in ashlar architraves on bracketed sills and with cornices; modillion cornice. Interior: entrance hall, originally open and with C16 frieze, part of which is now preserved in a first-floor bedroom, a floor having been inserted in the early C18 and lowered in 1963-4, the hall has a fireplace from Clumber Park; to its right the dining room with C18 cornice; in the left front wing the remodelled library; behind it the drawing room with C18 fireplace, doors and,doorcases, moulded shutters, cornice and coved and richly decorated ceiling, said to be by Lancelot Brown who landscaped the park in 1770; behind that the morning room with fireplace and decorated coved ceiling by John Carr; on the first floor above it a bedroom by John Carr; nearby the John Carr cantilevered stone staircase with fine wrought-iron balustrade by Tobin. (Listed Building Report)