Description

DURHAM AND FRAMWELLGATE NORTH ROAD
NZ 24 SE (East side)

4/294 Aykley Heads
30/4/71
GV II*

House, later council offices. Circa 1700 rear wing; mid C18 extensive
additions; early C19 front and alterations. Rendered; rear wing sandstone
rubble with brick dressings; ashlar porch; Graduated Lakeland slate roof
with rendered chimneys. Irregular plan approximately 3 ranges round a yard
with right set-back wing. 2 storeys; 7 irregular bays in front range; set-
back 3-bay wing. Entrance porch in second bay of right wing has central
half-glazed door, in wooden Tuscan porch with bracketed canopy, flanked by
2 slit windows under cornice and blocking course. Elliptical-headed sash
window with glazing bars above; left bay has quadrant extrusion containing
one sash with glazing bars and projecting stone sill on each floor; right
bay blank. 7-bay front range further left has blank ground floor and
irregularly-spaced, renewed first-floor windows. Right return of wing has
cast iron loggia with scrolled brackets and balconies, Gothic capitals to
columns, pierced first floor band. Steeply-pitched roofs are hipped; rear
end of left rear range has small ashlar bellcote inscribed F D I (Francis
D. Johnson lived here in mid C19).

Interior: hall wood-panelled below, plaster above, contains large wood
Jacobean-style chimney-piece and overmantel; cantilevered stair has wreathed
handrail and curtail; stucco panelling to walls and ceilings. Room to right
of hall contains much Baroque stucco decoration with high relief fruit and
flower garlands framing doors, mirror and decorative panels; enriched mouldings
to doors and windows which have shutters and soffits enriched; modillioned
frieze and elaborate ceiling decoration.

Rooms to left of hall have ornament of simpler type in stucco, with one mirror
framed in stucco drapery, several cornices, and ceiling decoration. Hall at
rear of this block has large fluted Ionic Venetian window and open-string stair
with ramped handrail; modillioned cornice to ceiling with central acanthus leaf
ornament. Rear left wing has close-string stair with ramped handrail and
balusters boarded over; and a second stair with flat handrail and square newels.
One rear central sash with broad glazing bars.

Empty and decaying at time of survey.

Listing NGR: NZ2651743844

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536858

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

• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)