Stanhope Hall

Stanhope Hall is a house, now divided into three dwellings, dating to the 16th and 17th centuries, and potentially incorporating earlier fabric, with alterations made subsequently. The construction is primarily of varied stone rubble, with some ashlar of millstone grit and quoins; the dressings are ashlar. The roof is stone-flagged, with sections of Welsh slate. The building follows an H-plan.

The east elevation is three storeys and seven bays, the left two bays being wider. A one-storey, one-bay extension is located to the right. The central three symmetrical bays are flanked by projections. A diagonally-boarded double door is set within a chamfered Tudor-arched surround, framed by iron brackets. Cross windows are situated on either side of the door, with shorter cross windows on the first floor and two-light windows on the second floor. These windows are single-chamfered with flat-fronted diamond mullions, and feature ashlar facing on the first two floors.

The left wing has sash windows with slender glazing bars under stone and wood lintels. The right wing has flat stone lintels to a renewed wood-mullioned cross window. A door is situated to the right, above a four-pane overlight and under a flat stone lintel. A massive diagonal buttress with numerous offsets is on the left corner of the left wing, while the right wing features clasping lower courses to its lower left corner. The roof is hipped over the main building and exhibits a catslide over the wings; sections of Welsh slate are present on the hips. Wide stone chimney stacks are irregularly placed. The left return shows a Tudor-arched door and three two-light stone-mullioned windows. Five stone corbels at the centre of the first floor formerly supported an oriel, which has since been replaced by a five-light mullioned-and-transomed window, the outer lights being blocked. A two-light stone-mullioned attic window is also present, while the side bays have sashes from the 18th to 19th centuries.

The south wing, housing a single residence, contains an east ground-floor room with a wide, square-headed, chamfered fire lintel. A first-floor west room has a wide, segmental-arched stone fireplace with voussoirs, and a small cupboard recess in the wall to the left. A beehive bread oven is within the chimney on the right, and a chute descends to the ground floor within the fireplace on the left. The second floor features three smaller flat-Tudor-arched chimney pieces. A stud-and-plaster screen, incorporating a top diabolo balustrade, is located at the west end of the first-floor room. Some doors are original, whilst others have been brought in from elsewhere and consist of six fielded panels. An early 18th-century staircase with a closed string and ramped handrail, supported by tapered column-and-vase balusters, is situated in a narrow open well. The first-floor landing has splat balusters. The north wing incorporates a 17th-century dog-leg staircase with fat turned balusters, a moulded high-topped handrail, and square newels with acorn finials, within a rear projection, serving all three floors. The ground floor has 17th-century panelled screens, with similar panelling in a passage along one side, complemented by a boarded dado on the opposite side.