Bradley Hall

Bradley Hall is a large country house dating to approximately 1760, originally built for John Simpson, a Newcastle merchant. It was altered in 1813 by the architect Dobson for the first Lord Ravensworth. The house is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a roof of graduated Westmorland slate. It has an L-shaped plan, with a later 19th-century nursery wing extending the left return. The house has two storeys and features 2, 3, and 2 windows on the front elevation, with 7 windows on the left return and 5 windows on the right return. The south elevation, which faces the garden, has a central projecting three-bay section. This section contains a half-glazed door beneath a large fanlight with glazing bars, set within a flat Tuscan doorcase with triglyphs at the ends of the fascia. An aedicule (small classical surround) frames the window above the door. Pediments are above the flanking windows. All windows have architraves, while those on the ground floor have a pulvinated frieze and cornice. Blind balustrades are located at first floor levels 1, 2, 6, and 7. Sill bands run along the ground floor and the central three bays of the first floor, while a first-floor band runs along the outer bays. A blind quartrefoil (quatrefoil shape) sits beneath an open pediment, which is continuous with a modillioned eaves cornice. A molded parapet coping is present, with the cornice returning slightly on the left and along the entire right return. The narrow set-backs on the left and right have a ground-floor sill band and an eaves cornice. The right return has a central door with a swept architrave, bracketed pediment, and an iron lampholder projecting from the frieze. A large rectangular fanlight with glazing bars is above the door. A round-headed staircase window breaks forward on the return of the later nursery wing, which has two storeys and dormers and four windows. The interior features high-quality mid-18th-century stucco ceiling decoration, including trophies and vine leaves. There are lugged architraves to the deep-panelled reveals of the six-panel doors, and a ramped handrail to the Chinese Chippendale-style staircase balustrades. Marble chimney pieces with carved panels and cornices on Ionic pilasters are also present.