Newham Hall, Retaining Wall And Steps

Newham Hall is a country house built in 1880 for John Mills, situated on the site of an earlier manor house. It is constructed from coursed rockfaced sandstone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, and has Lakeland slate roofs. The house is in a Jacobethan style, with two storeys and a basement.

The west-facing entrance front has three bays, with a slightly projecting four-stage central tower and a single-storey porch. Two steps lead to a round-headed opening with a keyed moulded arch and panelled spandrels, flanked by paired pilasters. The tower features a cornice, a shallow parapet with ball finials at the angles, and a flat lead roof. The windows are a mix of one-light and mullioned designs, with sashes. The left bay has three-light windows, with stepped oversailing at the eaves, and a gabled dormer. The right bay incorporates a square bay window projecting from the corner, with a balustraded parapet displaying the Mills family's arms and crest. A corniced stack is located at the right.

The right return front has four steps leading to glazed double doors, flanked by two- and three-light windows. An octagonal two-storey tower, with similar one-light windows, a plain parapet, and a large recessed lantern with a domical lead roof, projects from the corner. The lantern has paired sashes flanked by fluted pilasters and inverted volutes.

The east-facing garden front exposes the basement. The two left-hand bays are gabled, with an inscribed and dated cartouche on the first floor. A semicircular oriel window on the ground floor of the fourth bay sits on an offset buttress with carved colonnette and a recessed conical roof. There's also a dormer window with paired sashes and a domical roof, along with a gabled dormer in the fifth bay.

A garden terrace is bordered by a short retaining wall with a balustraded parapet, an elliptical-headed niche in the east face, and two flights of steps leading to the octagonal tower.

The interior stair hall features a fluted and acanthus-enriched frieze and a moulded cornice to a Jacobean-style panelled ceiling, along with a stone basket-headed fireplace with a wood Classical surround. The open-well staircase has carved strings, turned balusters, carved square newels with reeded ball finials, a moulded handrail, a ramped end, and a panelled dado. A three-bay wood arcade is situated at the head of the stairs. The dining room and drawing room also have similar ceilings and fireplaces. The drawing room has a pedimented Adam-style doorcase and an elliptical-arched inglenook with an Adam-style chimney-piece, and shell-headed niches flanking a panelled coving. Other ground-floor rooms have bay-leaf-moulded ceiling cornices.