Croxdale Hall

Croxdale Hall is a country house, likely dating from the 17th century, with significant alterations and additions around 1760 and in the early 19th century. The house was probably re-faced around 1760, possibly by John Carr for William Salvin, and features Rococo plasterwork attributed to Guiseppe Cortese. Further alterations occurred in the early 19th century, including a private Roman Catholic chapel in 1807, possibly designed by James Wyatt.

The house is constructed of squared sandstone with an ashlar south front, with graduated green slate roofs and old brick chimney stacks. It has a U-plan and combines classical and Gothic elements. The west front, re-faced in the late 18th century, has two storeys and a three-bay recessed central section, raised quoins, a band between storeys, an eaves cornice, and a low parapet. A double flight of steps leads to a replaced front door within a Roman Doric surround, surmounted by a Venetian window and flanked by 12-pane sashes. On the south front, a five-bay arrangement features a projecting, pedimented three-bay centre with sill bands, an eaves cornice, and a low parapet, and mainly replaced sashes in plain reveals, with Venetian windows above. The north front has a three-storey, five-bay central section flanked by late 18th-century, two-storey, full-height semicircular bows, which have sill strings and Venetian windows.

The interior of the house contains several ground-floor rooms featuring fine Rococo plasterwork, carved chimney-pieces, and panelled doors in architraves. A staircase has a ramped and wreathed handrail on stick balusters, beginning with a single flight that branches into two. The elaborate staircase hall ceiling is decorated with a central goddess and cartouches within a Doric frieze. The drawing-room ceiling depicts an eagle, while the library is fitted with late 18th-century mahogany bookcases. The dining room, situated in the north range's west bow, has late 18th-century decoration including fluted pilasters, a Roman Doric entablature with bucrania, an enriched Venetian window surmounted by carved wyverns and doorways with broken pediments. The Gothic chapel has clustered columns with small capitals supporting octapartite vaults with flat bosses, a bow-fronted sanctuary with canted sides and canopied niches, and a gallery. Several first-floor bedrooms retain similar, although more restrained, c.1760 plasterwork, chimney-pieces, and panelled doors. The Manor of Croxdale has been continuously owned by the Salvin family since 1402.