Unthank Hall

NY 76 SW PLENMELLER WITH WHITFIELD UNTHANK

3/192 Unthank Hall 10.6.52 GV II

Country House. C16 origins, remodelled and extended 1815 and 1865 by Dobson, altered 1900 and reduced in size 1965. Squared stone with ashlar dressings; west wing rubble with dressings. Slate roofs. 1815 work in plain Classical style; 1860 extensions free neo-Tudor. Entrance front 2 storeys, 2:1:1:1:2 bays, irregular. Central projecting porch has part-glazed door under 5-pane overlight in segmental-pointed arch, slit window above; coped gable with moulded kneelers and finial. Above porch a slit window and eaves corbel table. Flanking gabled bays with 3-light windows under hoodmoulds. Far right, set-back, 2-bay 1815 section has plinth, 1st floor band and eaves cornice; 12-pane sashes in architraves,those on 1st floor smaller. Far left, set-back 2-bay section with varied fenestration including tall cross window to servants' stair; eaves corbel table. Stepped and corniced stacks to left end and to ridge. Return walls, that on left twin-gabled, of 1965 rock-faced masonry with re-set sash windows. Rear (garden) elevation in similar style has wide canted bay of 1815 with altered sash windows in architraves, the central now a door. Paired sash window to right and 1st floor cross windows of c,1900.

Interior. 1.2 metre thick wall between stair hall and drawing room is the south wall of the earlier house. Elaborate fittings and decoration mostly of c.1860. The mid-Victorian main stair, heavily Classical in style, was brought, along with other fittings (including the pediments above the dining-room windows), from Pallion (Sunderland) c.1900. Ornate plaster ceilings in dining room and stair hall, and frieze in sitting room.

Unthank was a seat of the Ridley family in the C16, and has been claimed by some as the birthplace of Bishop Ridley the martyr.

Listing NGR: NY7297063014