Description

HOWSHAM MAIN STREET
SE 76 SW
(north end)
5/67 Howsham Hall
20.9.51
GV I

Country house, now school. c1610 with earlier origins, with alterations to
east front c1709 and refurbishment of interior during 1770's. Jacobean work
for Sir William Bamburgh; east front for Sir John Wentworth; late C18
refurbishment for Nathaniel Cholmley, possibly by John Carr or Peter
Atkinson. Limestone ashlar with brick servants' wing, Westmorland slate
roofs. U-shaped plan with servants wing forming fourth side of square to
rear. South front in Jacobean Renaissance style. 2 storeys and cellar, 7
bays including projecting full height central porch and canted outer bays.
Double door beneath radial fanlight in architrave flanked by paired Ionic
columns on pedestals carrying plain entablature, with paired Corinthian
columns above flanking single-transomed 4-light mullion window and panel
bearing arms of Sir William Bamburgh impaling those of his wife, Mary Forthe
of Butley, Suffolk. Otherwise double-transomed 4-light mullion windows,
except for 12-light windows to canted bays arranged 2:2:4:2:2. Parapet
with merlons and ball finials to each main front. West front, probably
Elizabethan in date with alterations to right, is of 3 storeys with Tudor-
arched doorway and irregular fenestration of 2-light and 4-light double-
chamfered mullion and transom windows with flat hood-moulds, those to right
in wooden frames. East front: 2 storeys, 6 bays. 15-pane unequal sashes to
ground floor, 18-pane sashes to first floor. Series of lead downpipes to
each front, ornamented with pendants of fruit, and Wentworth griffins and
leopard's heads, one to west front dated 1709. Servants' wing to rear: 2
storeys, 7 bays with Venetian windows to outer bays and casements and fixed
windows throughout. Dentilled eaves course and hipped roof with ridge
stacks. Interior: main hall has 2 Roman Doric columns in place of former
screen dividing entry from hall proper, which has entablature with frieze of
fret pattern and bucrania. To left of hall, the assembly room has richer
decoration, with Ionic pilasters along the wall carrying frieze with
anthemion and candelabra motifs, and Corinthian columns to mullions of bay
window. Fireplace of white and verde antico marble with frieze of ribbon
ornament, attributed to Fisher of York. Staircase hall to rear of main hall
has open-string staircase with slim turned balusters, supported on Tuscan
columns. Dining room (now a classroom): earlier decoration, probably
contemporary with remodelling of east front. Heavy panelling to dado level,
with acanthus cornice and doorcases comparable to those at Beningborough
Hall and possibly by Thornton. First-floor saloon has fine Adam-style
stucco ceiling, and an inlaid marble fireplace. In the west range is an
early kitchen, now a study, with 2 large Tudor-arched fireplaces. One
bedroom contains original William Morris wallpaper. Country Life, April
1905. Country Life, August 1935. Pevsner N, Yorkshire, York and the East
Riding, 1972.

Listing NGR: SE7341863134

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Howsham Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5922584

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)