Unthank Hall

Unthank Hall is a house dating to the 16th and 17th centuries, with alterations in the early and later 18th century. Constructed primarily of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and millstone grit quoins, the roof is of graduated stone flags with stone gable copings and ashlar and brick chimneys. The building is arranged in a roughly L-shaped plan.

The main front features two storeys and three bays, with a central two-storey porch extending upwards under a continuous roof, and a single-storey, one-bay extension to the right. The central porch has a partly-flushed door, above which is a flat-stone mullioned two-light overlight within a cyma-moulded square-headed surround with quirked edges and a cyma-moulded cornice. A single light is recessed within a chamfered surround to the left of the door, with recessed panels flanking it. Further panels are located to the left of the window and to the right of the door. A five-light stone-mullioned first-floor window sits above, again with recessed chamfers and narrow flat fronts to the splayed mullions. A similar surround exists for the ground-floor horizontal sliding sash window to the left and the first-floor window to the right, from which one mullion has been removed. Other windows have 12-pane and renewed 24-pane sashes in plain stone surrounds. A corbelled chimney rises from the first floor level in the inner right return of the porch. A low, blocked door to the right has a chamfered square-headed surround. The right extension includes a boarded door within a plain stone surround, and a small fixed light to the left. Porch and end chimneys incorporate corniced stacks with truncated round brick flues. The left gable coping has flattened ends. A massive stepped stack is located at the rear of the front block, on the junction with the rear wing, containing three square ashlar flues.

The left return displays sashes with glazing bars, and a partly-blocked three-light stone-mullioned attic window under a label mould. The lower, earlier rear wing is quoined. A rear courtyard features a flat-Tudor-arched surround to the door of the front range, with a blind framed panel above. A rectangular stair turret on the rear wing includes a door with a flat-Tudor-arched surround; a wide-chamfered Tudor-arched surround to the wing’s door; and a small square window above and to the left, featuring iron bar and rail within a chamfered surround of mainly hollow chamfers. Plain stone surrounds sashes with broad glazing bars.

The interior boasts a massive Tudor-arched fireplace in the left front room, a through-passage, and a chamfer on the frontside of the door to the stair turret. The rear wing contains an early 18th-century panelled room with a shell-canopied cupboard. Significant panelling exists throughout, including both fielded and plank-and-muntin screens on the first floor. Massive beams with stone corbels are present only in the right end of the rear wing. A stone winder stair rises through a semi-circle, with a moulded plank balustrade on the landing. Numerous two-panelled doors incorporate pegged latches.