Elton Hall

Details

ELTON ELTON HALL TL 09 SE 3/39 Elton Hall 25.9.51 GV II Country house. Late C15 remains of chapel and gatehouse by Sir Richard or Sir John Sapcote formerly part of the original courtyard house. Rebuilding in 1662-1689 by Sir Thomas Proby included -the chapel in north-east wing with wing at right angles to north-west, Thomas Cook and Christopher Chapman carpenter and mason. Extension to south-west by John Proby (d.1710) much altered by extensive alterations and rebuilding in 1780-1815 by the first Earl of Carysfort in a romantic Gothic style part surviving in south-east elevation. John Canon, mason 'built two round towers'. Circa 1855 the third Earl of Carysfort with Henry Ashton, architect, removed the Gothic details and demolished some former additions, rebuilt the north-west cross wing and refaced the north-west wing in stone restoring the main entrance to north-east facade with open portico; circa 1860 chapel range extended to north-west and bay between chapel and gatehouse rebuilt. The fourth Earl of Carysfort (1868-1872) added a tower to the chapel block, and billiard room and kitchens to north-east. The fifth Earl of Carysfort demolished the C18 tower and built two octagonal turrets to flank the rebuilt gable of the C17 range in 1882. Restored upper storey of Sapcote's tower after fire 1894, architect Birch. Coursed limestone rubble, freestone and ashlar. Collyweston stone slated roofs. Two and three storeys with attics and cellars. Former irregular T-plan compounded by additions to main north-east and south-west ranges with former chapel and gatehouse included in north-east range. Main entrance facade by Henry Ashton to former C17 wing. Portico with paired stone columns, entablature and balustraded parapet, double-leafed glazed doors and rectangular fanlight. Six-panelled door to right hand with cornice hood supported on console brackets. Six bays and three bays to right hand with nine first floor and eight ground floor hung sash windows with moulded stone architraves. Alternate triangular and segmental pediments to wooden and stone dormer windows with large central facade dormer to cross wing. Moulded stone cornice with dentil enrichment and plain band between floors. Narrow rectangular planned chimney stacks of rusticated ashlar recessed with plain panels and with moulded cornices. South-east garden facade; four elements unified in part by Gothic features and late C19 alterations, from left to right hand; pair of round embattled towers to south-west gable; three bays with central bay pedimented between pairs of slender pinnacled buttresses, with central embattled first floor oriel window; chapel range of three bays with two storey bay at first floor approached by semi-circular stone steps, Gothic two-centred arch headed windows with hung sashes shaped to arches and with slender glazing bars and moulded stone reveals, diagonal buttresses terminating in panelled and crocketed pinnacles; library building of one bay with two storey bay and resited C17 stone mullioned and transomed casement window at first floor said to have come from Drydens' House, Chesterton Cambs; gatehouse of three storeys with projecting bay, ashlar faced clasping buttresses, heavy machiolation with embattled parapet rising to turret-like projections, outer archway with four-centred head and grooves for a portcullis, first floor window of two four-centred lights in square head with moulded label, panel above with arms of Sapcotes, two blocked flanking window loops, one second floor window similar to first floor. Interior: Entrance hall with C17 Dutch oak panelling installed from Ireland in 1924 said to have originated from the Old Town Hall, Antwerp; inner hall and staircase hall mid C19 by Ashton in C18 revival style with scagliola columns and very fine wrought iron balustraded staircase; octagonal rooms C18; chapel,formerly the medieval undercroft, with quadripartite ribbed vaulting of four bays; former chapel was altered in c.1760 to the drawing room, redecorated c.1860 in French mid C18 style retaining original C18 plastered ceiling; dining room with C18 chimney piece removed from drawing room; late C18 main library with fittings and C19 stencil decoration; C19 inner library. 'The chimney pieces c.1815, were made of stone from the first Earl's quarries, Eligah Marlow, mason' (Inskip Ladds). Elton Hall Historical Guide. Sir Thomas Proby Accounts (Inskip Ladds). V.C.H. Huntingdonshire, p155 R.C.H.M. Huntingdonshire, p80 Pevsner: Buildings of England, p238 North View Drawing by S & N Buck, c.1730 Bodleian Library Gatehouse View, Drawing by J Carter 1791 B.M. South-west View, Drawing c.1800 North, south-west, south-east views by G Clarke, 1850 Ashton's drawings dated 1856 Photographs c.1855, c.1875 Inskip Ladds Collection, Norris Museum, St Ives

Listing NGR: TL0882892960

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

54847

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Elton Hall Historical Guide, ()
Inventory of Huntingdonshire, (1926), 80
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, (1954), 238
Page, W, Proby, G, The Victoria History of the County of Huntingdon, (1936), 155

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 5 Cambridgeshire,

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