Hansom House Lartington Hall Monk'S Flat Witham Court

Lartington Hall, Monk's Flat, Witham Court and Hansom House

A large county house with former servants' wing, now converted into three dwellings, situated on the north side of Lartington Lane. The building is a reversed U-plan composition combining structures from several periods. The original centre block dates to 1635, as recorded on the porch doorway. A late 18th-century chapel and west wing were later additions. The early 19th-century east wing includes a ballroom addition dating to around 1836, possibly designed by Ignatius Bonomi. Between 1861 and 1865, Joseph Hansom added a porte-cochère, vestibule, corridor and servants' wing.

The main house is constructed of pebble-dashed masonry with graduated green slate roofs and stone chimney stacks. The servants' wing is built of squared masonry with stone-flagged roofs and stone chimney stacks.

The south front is the principal elevation, presenting three storeys and five bays at the centre, with a projecting three-storey porch. The porch doorway features a three-centred head with the date 1635 re-cut on the lintel. Above this are a blocked two-light chamfered-mullioned window and a four-pane sash within an architrave. The flanking bays contain four-pane sashes. A three-light Geometrical-tracery window lights the projecting chapel. To the east, a four-bay wing steps forward, fitted with replaced four-pane sashes. An eaves cornice runs along the front, and the low-pitched roof is hipped over the wings and porch. Ridge stacks are stepped and corniced, finished with ornamental chimney pots.

The east front is two storeys and nine bays, with a three-bay centre and canted end bays. It features a plinth, replaced four-pane sashes, an eaves cornice and low-pitched roof. The ballroom addition projects from this front as a canted east bay with an elaborate pedimented tripartite window. The main block rises higher behind, lit by a clerestory, with a low-pitched hipped roof. A set-back north bay contains a Venetian window.

The north front is dominated by the porte-cochère added by Hansom, which consists of two round archways supported by end piers featuring vermiculated rustication. An entablature carries a datestone of 1863, with round-arched pedimented return bays. Behind this sits a square vestibule with canted corners, a small glazed lantern and a low-pitched pyramidal roof.

The west front comprises two distinct phases of building. The northern three-bay section contains twelve-pane sashes. At the junction are two gabled porches. The chapel to the south spans four bays with pointed windows and impost blocks. A horse-mounting block stands at the south end. The roof is low-pitched and hipped. The servants' wing displays sashes, steeply-pitched roofs, tall stacks and a datestone of 1861 in the south gable of Hansom House.

The interior contains several significant spaces. The former chapel, now used as a squash court, features Gothic plasterwork and a quadripartite rib-vaulted ceiling with a north gallery. The ballroom is colonnaded with canted corners, four segmental-arched recesses with Composite capitals, an enriched entablature carried across the recesses, a clerestory and coffered ceiling.

Hansom's Cinquecento-style additions include a vestibule with canted corners, niches, enriched round archways and a painted coffered ceiling cove. A six-bay linking corridor connects the vestibule to the ballroom; its south section contains three circular skylights on pendentives, while the north section has a late 20th-century suspended ceiling. A spacious staircase hall displays an open-well cantilevered stone stair with wreathed and ramped handrail and cast-iron balusters. A skylight above features 19th-century heraldic stained glass. A Venetian stair window contains stained glass depicting a Pre-Raphaelite female figure holding a lyre.

Lartington Hall was the home of the geologist Henry Witham (1779-1844).