Brandsby Hall

Details

BRANDSBY-CUM-STEARSBY TOWN STREET SE 57 SE (south side) 6/15 Brandsby Hall 28.2.52 GV II*

Country house. Rebuilding of older house. c.1742-8, with alterations of c.1785, possibly by Thomas Atkinson. Main house by and for Francis Cholmeley. Sandstone; hammer-finished ashlar, dressed and rubble; Westmorland slate roof. U-shaped plan, 3 storeys. South front: ashlar; 7 bays; plinth, rusticated quoins, first- and second-floor bands; original windows in keyed architraves, sashes with glazing bars, except for central 3 on ground floor, altered c.1785, to 15-pane sashes extending down into plinth and with cornices; 4-pane sashes on second floor; cyma reversa cornice; parapet; hipped roof; rendered brick stacks between 2nd and 3rd, 5th and 6th bays. Rear: rubble; lead rainwater head with legend 'F M 1746'. Left return: coursed stone; 5 bays; bands and keyed archi- traves as front; ground floor, from left, has leaved French doors below 4-pane overlight in architrave extended downwards; 8-pane window; part-glazed door in window opening with wooden steps; 2 sash windows with glazing bars; first floor, from left, two 10-pane windows in altered architraves, lighting back staircase, three 8-pane sashes; second-floor windows, cornice and parapet as front; corniced stack and hipped roof at left end (possibly containing some work of older house on site). Right return: rubble; 5 bays; windows have thick glazing bars and keyed ashlar surrounds, the first bay blind; in 3rd bay; door of 6 fielded panels below 3-pane overlight in eared architrave with pediment suppor- ted on consoles; on first floor two 18-pane sash windows lighting main staircase and two 8-pane sashes; second-floor windows of 4 panels. Interior: east door gives onto staircase hall containing oak cantilevered open-well staircase with turned balusters of fluted column on gadroon on vase, wreathed mahogany hand- rail, walls have Vitruvian scroll at first floor level, above which are egg- and-dart plasterwork edgings to panels, rich modillion cornice, 4 medallions in the coving and central cluster for chandelier, the plasterwork by Cortese; staircase hall has doorways with egg-and-dart architraves, also edging to 6 fielded panels; behind staircase hall the kitchen, with two chamfered ashlar fireplaces, one segmental-arched, the other tripartite and with outer round arches flanking larger central segmental arch, all chamfered; in front of staircase-hall, facing south, the drawing room, now the library, with Cortese ceiling with ribbons and grapes, augmented c.1830 with Greek-key frieze with almost detached roll wrapped round with acanthus leaves, yellow and white marble fireplace of c.1783; next the original entrance hall, now the drawing room, with c.1785 chimneypiece in white marble and cornice with guilloche in hollow core, ceiling has delicate decorative painting of c.1845 by Crace; dining room at west end with later cornice and fireplace; dogleg back staircase with column-on-vase balusters; on first floor to rear left, the chapel, now billiard room, with Cortese ribbon work on ceiling, large wall panels with shell niche, reredos now chimneypiece with broken pediment on Corinthian columns, doors in eared archi- traves with pulvinated friezes with acanthus leaves and cornices; second-floor rooms all have simple classical cornices; all the plasterwork, from cellars to attics having been provided by Cortese, whose bills survive. The first-floor landing is raised up over a cavity containing fragments of the older house on the site; when Francis Cholmeley married in 1745, he had to live temporarily at Warren House (qv), because his workmen demolished more of Brandsby Hall than he had intended, leaving only two rooms habitable. John Cornforth, 'Brandsby Hall, Yorkshire', Country Life 2 and 9 January 1969; VCR ii, p.104. Photos in NMR.

Listing NGR: SE5977271839

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

332723

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of York: North Riding, (1914), 104
Country Life in 2 January, (1969)
Country Life in 9 January, (1969)

End of official list entry

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