Brough Hall

Description

Country house, now 10 residences. C15, altered and extended c1575, early C17, c1730, c1770 and mid C19. Originally for de Burgh family, after c1575 for Lawson family, early C18 work possibly by William Wakefield, late C15 work by Thomas Atkinson. Rubble, part roughcast and sandstone ashlar, with Westmorland slate roofs. Central 3-storey, 3-bay C15 tower house with cross-passage and hall, with C16 2-storey 1-bay side bays (west one a solar wing) and rear stair tower. To east and west, projecting C18 2-storey 5-bay blocks, east block with rear chapel wing of early C18. Main north elevation: earlier work refronted C18. Central 3 bays: outer bays narrower, gabled and slightly breaking forward. Central bay: leaved 6-panel doors in architrave with C20 Doric portico and, above, Ionic Venetian window in round- arched recess with voussoirs aligned to courses. Other windows in central block are round-arched sashes with glazing bars in architraves, with 6-panel part-glazed door below upper part of window to ground floor left (giving access to cross-passage) and half-size on second floor. Modillions to cornice and gable pediments. Parapet with moulded coping. Flanking bays have sash windows with glazing bars in architraves, moulded cornices and plain parapets. Side blocks elevationally match the flanking bays, first and fourth bays of left block being blind, and have 2-bay inner returns. Corniced stacks to right end of central range, other stacks C20 brick. South elevation (rear), central range: C15 rubble with quoins, blocked C16 mullion and transom windows, early C18 refenestration. Right bay projects slightly and has C16 studded board cross-passage door in quoined chamfered surround with triangular head; to its right an external garderobe projects buttress-like with one vent and stone roof; to its left blocked single-light window openings formerly to garderobes of upper floor, chute at bottom now blocked. In central bay and on first and second floors of right bay, sash windows with glazing bars in architraves with tripartite keystones. Staircase tower to left: ground-floor blocked single-light window; first- floor pedimented Tuscan Venetian window on balustraded dado, above it the head of a 2-light mullion window; second-floor Diocletian window, above it the head of a 2-light mullion window. Right return of staircase tower: ground-floor blocked quoined chamfered doorway with triangular head; quoined surrounds of 2-light mullion windows on ground, first and second floors, the last open. Solar wing to left: on left, part-glazed door in architrave with panelled pilasters, cornice capitals and keyed round arch: above, on first floor, a sash window with glazing bars in keyed architrave; to right, c1900 2-storey canted bay window with mullions and transoms. Left return of solar wing: external stack, corbelled out on first floor. To left again, west block has large central segmental bay with part-glazed door in console- corniced architrave and Tuscan Venetian window above. In flanking bays on both floors, oculi in ashlar surrounds. Interior: central block, ground floor: hall has C16 panelling with fluted frieze and modillion cornice, altered in C18; C16 ribbed ceiling with small pendants and,on plasterwork of frieze and cross-beams, armorial motifs commemorating marriage of Elizabeth de Burgh and Ralph Lawson c1575. First floor: 2 small rooms (now 1) over cross-passage with C16 ribbed ceilings with small pendants and armorial motifs; good early C18 woodwork in great chamber. Second floor: fragments of C16 panelling and frieze matching those in hall. Staircase tower: excellent c1730 oak staircase with turned balusters of gadroon-on-vase design; superb first-floor ceiling with modillion cornice, corner rosettes and richly-decorated oval panel; second-floor room with masons' marks on C16 stone doorway and mullion window. Solar wing: on ground floor, good early C18 bolection panelling with 2 pedimented chimney-pieces. East block: ground floor: 2 late-C18 tripartite stone fireplaces. Late C18 cantilevered stone staircase and turned baluster staircase. Chapel wing has good early C18 woodwork and plasterwork including gallery balustrade, also chimney-piece brought from great chamber. West block: ground floor: Adam- style fireplace moved to new position, coat of arms of Lawson family over original position of fireplace; Adam-style decorated plasterwork to ceiling; staircase hall with central shell niche flanked by recesses; semi-elliptical cantilevered stone staircase. Brough Hall passed by marriage from the de Burghs to the Lawsons c1575. The Lawson family were recusants, and in addition to their private chapel, built the Church of St Paulinus in the grounds of Brough Hall. (Listed Building Report)

Comments

Appears to have started as a C15 solar tower, presumably attached to a timber hall replaced in the C16. The site will have been occupied by the medieval manor house of the Brough family although there is nothing to suggest that was fortified before the construction of the fashionable but small solar tower.