Details
TL0490
17/57
20/02/62
01/07/75
COTTERSTOCK
MAIN STREET
(North side)
Cotterstock Hall and attached
outbuildings
(Formerly listed as Cotterstock Hall)
GV I
Country house. Datestone N/J.M./1658 for John Norton altered, early C18 and
staircase added mid C19. Squared coursed limestone with ashlar facades and
Collyweston slate roofs. Originally probably H-shape plan, now no north-east
wing. 2 storeys with attics and basement. Entrance front, to south, is of 5 bays
with flanking bays breaking forward as gabled cross wings. Central 2-storey
porch also breaks forward with recessed attic storey and gable above. Central
arch head doorway with keyblock. Flanking console brackets, carrying a
semi-circular overthrow, with arms of Viscount Melville. Inner 6-panel door.
Pairs of C18 sash windows, with glazing bars, and plain architraves with
keyblocks, to ground floor of flanking wings. Plain apron below each window
3-light, ovolo-moulded, stone mullioned windows with transoms and
cavetto-moulded eared architraves, to first floor of porch, ground and first
floor left of porch and first floor of flanking wings. Similar 3-light stone
mullion windows to attics of flanking gables, and to basement. Blocked windows
to right of porch and to return walls of flanking wings. Chamfered plinth.
String course, with set back, between ground and first floor. Flat-roofed porch
has stone balustrade with square section balusters and ball finials at the
corners. Central scroll gable has square-head doorway, with eared architrave,
opening into flat roof of porch; blind oval lozenge above has datestone. Wooden
roof dormers, flanking porch, have leaded casements and curved gablets with ball
finials. Ashlar gable parapets with ball finials at apex and eaves. Ashlar ridge
stacks with moulded cornices. Square panels in apex of gables, that to left is a
sundial. Elevation to left of entrance front is of 6 bays: 4-window range of 2-,
3-and 4-light stone mullion windows, some with transoms, similar to entrance
front. 4-light staircase windows, to left of centre, have square-head doorway
below. Central gable has 3-light stone mullion attic window. String course with
set back and ashlar gable parapets with ball finials, all similar to entrance
front. Elevation, to right of entrance front, is similar, of 4 bays with a pair
of C18 sash windows to right, similar to entrance. 3-light attic window above.
Rear elevation, all in similar style, has projecting gabled cross-wing to right.
Central C19 staircase projection has tall stone mullion window and 2 reset oval
lights. 3-light stone mullion window to first floor left, with transom. Wall,
attached to left of main front, has ashlar coping and forms rear wall of
rectangular range of single-storey outbuildings. Rear elevation has 4-window
range of 2-light stone mullion windows. Central arch-head doorway and plank door
to right. Lean-to roof. Interior; entrance hall has early C18 triple arcade on
right, with wooden Tuscan columns, originally open to the Hall. Similar arcade
originally existed to left. Staircase of 1857 has turned balusters rising around
an open well. Hall to right of entrance has limestone fireplace c1658 with
pulvinated frieze, eared and bolection moulded surround and moulded cornice. The
Morning Room in the south-east wing has a fireplace with eared surround,
flanking scrolls and central carved floral panel. Room in south-west wing not
inspected but noted as having fireplace with bolection moulded surround. Room to
left of entrance hall not inspected but noted as having early C18 fireplace with
bolection moulded surround, probably of Alwalton Marble, and late C17 panelling.
Kitchen in north-west wing has large open fireplace with segmental arch head.
Staircase to far left of entrance is c1658 with closed string, straight flights
with doglegs, turned balusters and panelled newels. Chamfered beams throughout.
First floor rooms not inspected but 4 rooms noted as having C17 fireplaces, with
moulded stone surrounds, also panelling. South-west attic room not inspected but
noted as having reset C17 scratch moulded panelling. This room is said to be
where the poet John Dryden stayed when visiting the house in 1698 and l699. The
house was occupied by the Norton family until about 1693 when it was sold to
Elmes Steward, it then passed to John Rose in the C18 and C.P. Berkley in early
C19 and was bought by Jane Dowager Countess of Westmorland in 1843. Her relative
the third Viscount Melville completed the staircase in 1857.
(RCHM: An Inventory of Architectural Monuments in North Northamptonshire: p40;
Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: p160)
Listing NGR: TL0459290669
