Ormesby Hall, Adjoining Outbuildings And Screen Walls

Ormesby Hall is a manor house situated within a partly moated site, dating back to around 1600. The site was drained in the 18th century. The hall was largely rebuilt in the mid to late 18th century to form a service wing, specifically between 1730 and 1745, with internal alterations circa 1770, possibly by John Carr. Further alterations occurred in the mid-19th century, including a porch around 1871, a rear bay window, and a porch/link dated 1879.

The hall is constructed of vertically-tooled sandstone ashlar, with a chamfered plinth. The service wing uses dressed sandstone with brick in an English garden wall bond to the south ranges. The north-east range and rear wall of the north-west range are of coursed random rubble. The roofs are slate, with lead sections, while the service wing has Welsh slate.

The hall’s entrance front, facing the Palladian style, is three storeys and a basement, featuring five bays with a three-bay slightly-projecting pedimented centre. A central prostyle porch contains glazed double doors. The windows are renewed sashes with glazing bars, each with a keystone, and the central bay has architraves. A painted modillioned eaves cornice runs along the top, with sculpted Pennyman arms in the tympanum. The roof is hipped, with sprocketed eaves and corniced ridge stacks. The left return displays three basement windows and two round-headed stair windows. A two-storey porch/link on the left end features a two-by-two bay rusticated elliptical arcade, sash windows in architraves, and a hipped roof. The right return features a four-bay elevation. The garden front is similar, with a central square bay window.

A short screen wall with a gateway adjoins the right side of the entrance front. This features fluted gatepiers with ball finials, supporting a partly-renewed round-headed doorway containing a keystone, pediment, and boarded double doors. The wall is ramped at its end.

The service wing surrounds a courtyard, connecting to the porch/link. Its entrance front (north-west) has eight windows and is two storeys high with a basement. The third bay contains a six-panel round-headed door within an early 17th-century quasi-Corinthian doorcase, displaying a Pennyman achievement of arms. A basement window is situated to the right of the doorway. The service wing has sash windows with glazing bars, some renewed, and keyed lintels. A continuous dentilled eaves cornice runs along the top, and the roof is hipped, with corniced ridge stacks. Lean-to outhouses and pigsties adjoin a high screen wall enclosing a yard on the north-east side of the service wing.

The hall's interior features rich decorations, with ceilings in the dining room and drawing room representing the later period, and more delicate detailing elsewhere. Some rooms on the first floor showcase both periods. The cantilevered dogleg staircase has three turned balusters with square knops, per tread, a ramped wreathed moulded handrail, and a curtail bottom stair. A three-bay screen with acanthus capitals leads to a grand landing on the first floor. A similar service staircase incorporates carved drops on panelled newels. The property is now owned by the National Trust.