Barningham Park

Barningham Park is a country house with a complex building history spanning the medieval period to the early 19th century. The north range and kitchen wing date from the late medieval or 16th century, with the main block and rear wing from the 16th or 17th century. The house was substantially remodelled around 1720 for the Milbanke family, with a second floor added in the mid-18th century and a south extension to the rear wing in the early 19th century.

The main block and north range are constructed of squared stone with coursed rubble used elsewhere. Cut and tooled dressings and quoins feature throughout. The roof is covered in graduated Lakeland slate except for stone slates on the rear wing extension.

The east elevation displays the main block in its most formal aspect: a three-storey symmetrical composition of 2+3+2 bays with raised quoins to the lower floors, first and second floor strings, and a moulded eaves cornice. The central focal point is a half-glazed door in a rusticated surround with flanking pilasters featuring faceted rustication, a triglyph frieze and a segmental pediment with sunken panel. The first and second floor fenestration comprises 12-pane sash windows to the lower floors (renewed on the ground floor) and renewed 6-pane sashes on the second floor, all in stepped stone surrounds. Coped gables and small corniced end stacks complete this elevation. The left return shows steps up to a 19th-century French window on the first floor, a Diocletian window on the second floor and a pedimented gable.

The kitchen wing's inner return is a two-storey composition of two wide bays with a plinth and raised quoins to the right. The older left bay retains long roughly-shaped end quoins. Each bay contains a double Venetian window with two 12-pane sashes in stone surrounds above. A coped gable end sits on moulded kneelers with a stepped and corniced ridge and right end stacks.

The rear of the main block features a projecting wing with two round-arched 12-pane sashes with intersecting glazing bars set in stone surrounds with moulded imposts, and a pedimented gable with small corniced stack. To the right is an L-bay extension with 9-pane sashes and a doorway in an architrave beneath a re-set 16th or 17th-century armorial panel. The left two-bay north range includes an older right bay with long roughly-shaped end quoins, 12-pane sashes, and a hipped roof to the left with two ridge stacks, one stepped and corniced.

The north elevation rises two to three storeys and features various glazing-bar sashes and a canted bay.

The interior preserves significant features of its 18th-century remodelling. The entrance hall is fitted with an acanthus cornice and a segmental arch to the stair. The library features a cornice with acanthus and flower ornament. An open-well stair with stone treading to the first floor displays shaped tread ends, stick balusters, turned newels and a moulded ramped handrail. The drawing room retains an elaborate cornice, partly restored. Fielded-panel doors and shutters occur throughout.

The original kitchen occupies part of the wing and contains 16th-century moulded beams and a chamfered segmental-arched fireplace. A doorway beneath a corbelled lintel provides access to the 18th-century kitchen in the added bay, which features a segmental fireplace flanked by round-arched recesses and old beams with numerous hooks and fittings. An upper-cruck roof covers the older part of the wing.

The north range's older section contains walls one metre thick. A section of stone newel stair survives with an original chamfered and barred window, now internal. A corbelled-out feature in a nearby cupboard may represent part of an original fireplace.

A single-storey extension north of the rear wing and a 20th-century garage block west of the north range are not of architectural interest.