Rokeby Park And Attached Stables

Country house built between 1725 and 1731 by its owner, Sir Thomas Robinson, and constructed in the Palladian style while incorporating some earlier fabric. Internal alterations carried out after 1769 included redecoration of the Dining Room, probably by John Carr. The east blocks were heightened in the later 19th century.

The main block rises three storeys with a low ground floor originally planned as a basement, arranged as 1 + 3 + 1 bays. The south front is ashlar; other walls are rubble, rendered and colour-washed ochre except for the rear of the main block. The outer east block is heightened in tooled-and-margined stone with ashlar dressings. Graduated Lakeland slate roofs cover the structure.

The main front features a plinth, first-floor and second-floor sill bands, and a modillion eaves cornice. A slightly-projecting pedimented centre contains a one-storey, three-bay Doric loggia with paired columns and balustraded balcony, which replaced the original external stair. The first floor has 12-pane sashes; the central opening is an original door in an architrave with swept feet, pulvinated frieze and pedimented hood on consoles. The second floor has 6-pane sashes. All windows are set in architraves. A pyramid roof with two stepped and modillion-corniced lateral stacks on each side slope supports a tall finial with weathervane.

Set-back flanking two-storey, three-bay blocks flank the main house, with a low ground floor; the east block has an added storey dated 1877. These blocks receive similar treatment to the main house except for Venetian windows in the west return, and both have tall hipped roofs. Further back stand outer one-storey, three-bay blocks with projecting pedimented centres and flanking niches. The right block has an added storey.

The north elevation features a three-storey, three-bay centre with a ground floor set forward to carry a balcony between four-storey pyramid-roofed towers. Above the balcony is a Venetian window with a Diocletian window above. The lower part of the left tower shows older masonry with roughly-shaped quoins and a blocked mullioned window. Stable yards flanking the rear court have rusticated entrance arches. The north-east yard contains an original stable with a triple-arched front. The entrance to the court is flanked by attached piers carrying lead sphinxes.

The interior displays lavish classical detail including carved cornices, doors, skirtings, chair rails and architraves in a variety of classical patterns. Tuscan colonnades appear in the Entrance Hall and Library. The Breakfast Room is richly decorated and lined with late 18th-century prints. A circular vestibule links to an oval ante-room and stair-hall. The three-storey open-well stair features a cut string with gadrooned umbrella balusters, carved newels, a wreathed ramped and moulded handrail and curtail step.

The first-floor saloon retains five original door and cupboard surrounds, including a carved pedimented principal door inscribed with the motto 'FAY CE QUE VOUDRAS'. A later Greek Revival fireplace in two-colour marble occupies the wall opposite the windows. The ceiling is painted in a Gothick style with vaulted coving.

A bedroom on the west of the saloon features a barrel vault with Rococo carving in panels, on the end walls and on the fireplace. An anteroom contains an exedra and two Ionic screens. The Dining Room has an ornamental ceiling, an enriched Venetian window in the end wall and, facing the three south windows, a wide exedra with niches flanking a carved fireplace.

The property is attached to stables.