Thornton Hall

NZ 21 NW HIGH CONISCLIFFE B6279 (Staindrop Road) (North side, off) 5/106 Thornton Hall 6/6/52 GV I Manor house now farmhouse. Front range c.1550 for Ralph Tailbois; c.1630 rear range for Sir Francis Bowes; C18 and c.1880 alterations and additions. Coursed rubble. Ridged concrete tiles and Welsh slates. Stone chimneys. Hall and projecting cross wing to right (left cross wing has been removed). 2-storey extruded porch at right of hall. Added right rear range. Narrower rear extension at left. Small c.1880 one-storey addition to left of hall block. Front range: 2 storeys plus attics; gabled hall and cross wing, both 2 bays wide; porch at junction. Porch has bolection-moulded doorway, sash and parapet with blank shields and gargoyles. Blocked round-headed light on left return of porch. First-floor sashes in moulded C18 surrounds, blocked in end bays. 3-light, partly-blocked mullioned windows, with arched heads under hoodmoulds, in attics. Embattled parapet at left and between gables. Steeply-pitched roof with coped gables. Corniced left end stack. Tall stack on valley to right. 3-storey right return of 2 builds with straight joint. Wider 2-bay front section: bolection-moulded doorway with pulvinated frieze and scrolled pediment; sashes and blocked cross windows in architraves, all but one under scrolled pediments; steeply-pitched roof behind parapet. 2-bay later rear section: 3-light mullioned-and-transomed windows, mostly part-blocked or sashed; floating cornices over with centres forming triangular pediments on ground floor and semicircular pediments on first floor; 4-pane light in eared architrave below eaves; low-pitched roof. Irregular left return: behind gable end of hall range is another gabled extension with chamfered window surrounds; main rear range has blocked or sashed 2- and 3-light mullioned windows, some with transoms. Twin-gabled, 3-storey rear has blocked or sashed 2-light mullioned windows and cross windows; low-pitched 2-span roof. One-storey, 2-bay c.1880 addition, on left of hall block, has sashes and a steeply-pitched roof. Interior: ground-floor hall (now kitchen and passage) has c.1550 chamfered oak beams with Flamboyant carving and cyphers referring to Ralph Tailbois. Early C18 panelling in ground-floor room at right. Mid C17 open-well staircase with closed string, bold turned balusters and moulded handrail; possibly late C17 columnar newel posts linking flights. First-floor subdivided bedroom has damaged late C16 plaster ceiling with intersecting ribs, fleurs-de-lys, shells and the Tailbois coat of arms. Front attic has plaster floor, studded partition wall and Tudor-arched wood door lintel with initials of Ralph Tailbois. Late C19 single-storey wing on left of front range is not of special interest. (G.A. Fothergill, "Thornton Hall", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Volume III, No. 3, 1908).

Listing NGR: NZ2381816991