Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 4 May 2021 to remove superfluous source details and reformat the text to current standards

SE 0422 and SE 0522
15/39

SOWERBY BRIDGE
Sowerby
DEAN LANE (west side, off)
Field House

(formerly listed on Upper Field House Lane)

15.11.66

GV
II*
House. 1749 for George Stansfield, probably with later additions. Ashlar, stone slate roof. Palladian style. Main block of double-pile plan, two storeys with basement and eleven bays has short, central rear wing linking it to parallel kitchen range.

South-east (entrance) front: 2:2:3:2:2 bays, outer bays set back and possibly added later (1845 OS Map shows gap between Field House and Old Hall (qv)), central three bays breaking forward under pediment. Rusticated basement and quoins; ground floor band. Flight of steps with balustrade leads to central doorway which has C20 part-glazed door and fanlight in double architrave with pulvinated friezes, cornice and segmental pediment. Windows are sashes in architraves with corbelled cills, pulvinated friezes and cornice. Modillion eaves and pediment cornice. In tympanum, Stansfield coat of arms (three rams with lion crest) flanked by foliage. Roof hipped over central block and outer bays. Corniced stacks to ends and ridge.

Rear: main block has four-light flat-faced mullion windows, transomed on ground floor. Right return: main block in style of front: three bays, central bay breaking forward slightly under pediment. Plinth: rusticated quoins. Steps up to central door, part-glazed with etched glass, in architrave of Tuscan columns supporting classical entablature with blocking course and lion. Windows as front: Modillion eaves cornice. In tympanum, lion crest and motto "Know thyself". Kitchen range, set back on right, has a C16 Perpendicular style transomed five-light pointed-arch window. In front of this are two columns which support a cupola-style bellcote with tripled columns and finials. These two features were brought from St Peter's Church, Sowerby, when it was rebuilt in 1762 (Whites p473). The inner courtyard front of the kitchen range has a doorway on left with four-light window above and a nine-light window to its right (partly-blocked) by a brick lean-to) with an eleven-light window above, all windows with flat-faced mullions.

Interior of main block: entrance hall: Tuscan tetrastyle in antis carries full entablature returned around room, fireplace with C18 eared architrave, floral-decorated panel to frieze, entablature, and later polychromatic tiles and grate within, C18 inner surround; overmantel has swept, eared architrave with goat standing on keystone.

Corridor: lozenge-slated floor; six-panel doors in moulded architraves with entablatures; dentil cornice; oval light-well at right end; fire stair at left end. Stair: curved round with moulded handrail and stick-on-vase balusters, clustered at curtail; Venetian stair window with etched glass, Ionic columns and modillion cornice; first floor modillion cornice, floral frieze and central decorative ceiling plasterwork. First floor: corridor: six-panel doors in less-elaborate architraves apart from that to lobby at right end which has shouldered architrave with console pediment; light-well has balusters as stair and coved rectangular skylight; cornice. Good fireplaces in front bedrooms.

Interior of kitchen range: left room a barrel-vaulted pantry with stone shelves; central room has two keyed arched recesses at rear and a stone sink; right room has three similar recesses with cupboards in outer two and range in central one.

Listing NGR: SE0415422639

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Field House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17542975

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)