Gainford Hall

Gainford Hall is a manor house built between 1600 and 1603 for John Cradock, Vicar of Gainford. It was restored in the later 19th century.

Construction and Materials

The building is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with alternating flush quoins. The roof is pantiled with up to five courses of sandstone flags at the eaves, and features restored ashlar chimney stacks.

Plan and Layout

The hall has a tall, compact, nearly square plan with central gabled projections on all four sides. The projections to the front and rear are full-height porches, while those on the right and left returns are wider stair towers. Internally, it employs a split-level double-pile plan. The south range contains two storeys of principal rooms over a basement, with an intended long attic gallery above. The north range holds three storeys of service rooms and additional bedrooms plus an attic.

A central double-thickness spine wall runs through the building, accommodating all fireplaces over three floors, with a corridor to the rear separating the north and south ranges. The floors of the north range are set at a lower level than those of the south range. To maintain external symmetry, false windows were created on the east and west elevations.

Exterior

Both ranges and all projections are gabled, with coped gables and carved stone finials. Windows are mostly double-chamfered stone mullions of varying widths, some with transoms.

The three-bay south elevation features a central projecting three-storey porch reached by eight steps. The round-headed doorway has an elaborate doorcase with fluted pilasters and an entablature bearing the initials IC, topped by a shaped pediment with a shield featuring strapwork and finials. The porch has five-light windows with two-light returns to the first and second floors, appearing to wrap around the projection. Either side of the porch, the basement has a pair of two-light mullioned windows. The ground floor features a six-light mullioned and transomed window lighting the hall in the left bay, and a similar three-light window lighting the parlour in the right bay. The first floor has two three-light mullioned windows. The roof has three steeply-pitched ridges parallel to the front with slightly-projecting eaves. The central ridge carries groups of four-three-four conjoined and corniced chimney stacks.

The left return has three gables: a four-storey left bay with two and three-light mullioned windows and a large blocked three-light mullioned window; a three-storey stair tower with a four-light mullioned and transomed window to each floor; and a four-storey right bay. This right bay contains a doorway with chamfered jambs, a basket-arched lintel and a double-thickness door, plus a two-light blocked mullioned window to the basement, with similar three and four-light windows above. The right return is similar, with a blocked opening with a four-centred arched head to the stair tower.

The rear elevation has a four-storey porch containing a 20th-century part-glazed door in a chamfered surround under a restored four-centred arched head. Above this is a four-light mullioned and transomed window, and a worn tablet in a classical frame bearing a shield with the initials IC MC RC and the date 1600. There are two four-light mullioned and transomed windows to each floor above, the upper window beneath a hoodmould. Windows in the bays either side of the porch are three, four and five-light mullions.

Interior

Throughout most of the building, timber beams are boxed in, except in the ground floor service areas of the rear range, which have exposed chamfered beams with stops. All upper floors have a variety of later 19th-century or early 20th-century four-panel doors with contemporary architraves and skirting boards. The double-thickness central wall contains all fireplaces and flues, and there may be additional fireplaces obscured behind wall panels.

South Range

The south range contains the principal rooms. Within the south porch, there is a round-headed arched recess to each side wall, with a moulded cornice and corbel above. The porch opens into the main hall, which has early 17th-century small square oak panelling throughout, incorporating several seven and eight-panel doors with decorative hinges. One door leads down a flight of stone stairs through the thickness of the central spine wall into the service range to the rear. Immediately to the right of this door is a cupboard within the thickness of the wall containing a small rectangular alcove with a crudely constructed small timber door with strap hinges of 16th or 17th-century date.

The panelling has a decorative timber frieze of carved arcading, above which is a deep plaster frieze with three bands of ornament: individually cast flowers and fruits set in random sequence; a repeat cast of a mermaid flanked by winged cupids with bows; and at the bottom, large leaves, fruits and sprigs in random sequence. Analysis of the motifs has identified several parallels elsewhere and suggested they derive from a contemporary embroidery sampler or embroidery design book. A large chamfered segmental-arched fireplace occupies the centre of the north wall.

The parlour to the right, entered through a seven-panel door, has similar small square panelled walls and a moulded ceiling cornice. The north wall, which has an inserted early 20th-century chimney piece, is lined with late 19th-century or early 20th-century lincrusta wall covering in the form of small square panelling. Both ground floor chambers retain some wide floorboards indicative of an earlier date.

On the first floor is the former great chamber above the hall, now subdivided into two rooms by a light modern partition. It retains an ornate stone Tudor-arched fireplace with ornate stops. The best bed chamber lies to the right above the parlour and has a stone chimney piece with a mid to later 19th-century arched inset. Other fixtures and fittings on this floor are 20th-century.

The second floor is thought to have originally been open to the roof trusses and was probably intended as a gallery. The cellar, accessed via a Tudor-arched opening through the north side of the central spine wall, is divided into several rooms. The original external double-thickness cellar door retains an original lock box.

Stair Towers

The east and west stair towers are of closed well form. The west tower has stone construction and the east is thought to be unfinished, but both have reconstructed timber staircases with stick balustrades and handrails where they cross windows. Both staircases provided a variety of circulation patterns through the house: from services up to bed chambers, from hall to great chamber, and from parlour to best bedchamber.

North Range

The north range contains the service areas. The ground floor has an L-shaped stone-flagged passage set against the central spine wall, through which there is access to the cellar and the great chamber of the south range. The service rooms are reached through a crude four-panel door and via the L-shaped passage. There are presently four rooms; with the exception of a hand-bell board in one of these, fixtures are few and include modern kitchen fittings and shelving.

Three bedrooms occupy the first floor, with some 20th-century fittings including those to the bathroom and a wooden window seat. The other two rooms both have chamfered Tudor-arched fireplaces with ornate carved stops, and are fitted with cast-iron ranges. There are three further second floor rooms above with modern fittings. The most easterly has a late 19th-century chimney piece and floral-tiled insert, and the central room has a 19th-century chimney piece and mid to later 19th-century arched grate.

Roof Structure

A wide four-panel boarded door with strap hinges gives access from the east stair turret to attics above the front and rear ranges. There are separate original pegged roof structures above each range, one side of each carried on the double-thickness central wall. Each roof comprises five triangular trusses of tiebeam-and-principal form with a high collar and double purlins supported in trenches on the back of each truss. The wire transmission system for the hand-bell board to the service area is attached to the sides of the central chimney wall. A gallery is thought to have been intended for the top floor of the south range, which was glazed but never completed internally. A timber ladder provides access to the roof.

Exclusions

All attached outbuildings and walls, all 20th-century bathroom and kitchen fittings, and the light modern partition to the first floor great chamber are not of special architectural or historic interest.