Hamsterley Hall, With Wall And Outbuilding Adjoining

Hamsterley Hall, with Wall and Outbuilding Adjoining

House. An early 18th-century building much enlarged in 1769 (as recorded on the rainwater heads) for R.H. Swinburne; further early 19th-century alterations were made; and around 1932 18th-century fragments from Beaudesert, Staffordshire, were incorporated for S.R. Vereker. The main walls are constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, quoins and plinth. The rear wing is built in English garden wall brick with a rendered plinth. The roof is covered with Lakeland slate. The building follows an irregular plan and is executed in the Gothic style.

The garden front rises two storeys and contains four wide bays. A two-storey, four-light mullioned-and-transomed square bay projects at the left. The two central bays at ground-floor level and the third bay at first-floor level have similar windows of five and four lights respectively, all with double-chamfered details. The fourth ground-floor window is a Gothic canted bay set beneath a parapet and topped with a quatrefoil and drip mould above. Above the five-light second-bay window are two ogee-headed sash windows. The Gothic-style windows feature patterned glazing bars; the 17th-century windows throughout have leaded casements with heraldic panels. A projecting battlemented parapet rises above the gutter cornice. The hipped roof has corniced ridge chimneys.

On the left return stands an early 18th-century 12-panel door in a large shell-hooded doorcase with fine carving, imported from elsewhere. The right rear wing incorporates a 17th-century door and window within its inner return to the yard, with Gothic-style windows on the first and second floors in plain stone surrounds. To the left of this section, a plainer two-storey brick wing breaks forward, featuring varied windows and a rear pedimented doorcase. This wing has hipped roofs and ridge chimneys. An early 20th-century Gothic-style conservatory occupies the left return of the main ridge.

The interior of the staircase hall features an 18th-century staircase with an enriched dado rail and six-panel doors in architraves under ornamental overdoors, a design repeated throughout the front range. The handrail is ramped on fat stick balusters and fluted newels with shaped tread ends. The Gothic stair window has a scalloped pointed surround on panelled pilasters. A first-floor arcade with an ogee arch and Gothic arcaded cornice features palmette-and-acanthus ceiling roses.

The morning room contains a Greek key dado rail, a Gothic white marble chimney piece, and similar Gothic ceiling patterns. The dining room has walls of arcaded panels formed by clustered pilasters supporting cusped arches, topped with pinnacles. It retains a 15th-century stone chimney piece from Crosby Hall and a ceiling that is Gothic-panelled and grained. The drawing room is entirely panelled with stucco Gothic arches beneath an arcaded frieze, although some classical detailing is present. A first-floor west room contains an inserted 17th-century panelled interior and a grand fireplace with panels depicting perspective rooms and Renaissance decoration, including high-relief fruit and flower garlands.

The rear wing interior incorporates a 17th-century chimney piece, moulded beams, and a closed-string stair featuring a wide handrail, fat turned balusters, and moulded square finials and pendants in the principal ground-floor room. A battlemented wall at the rear, with a Tudor-arched door, links to a two-storey, three-bay brick outbuilding.