Towneley Hall

Towneley Hall is a grade I listed country house in Burnley that served as the seat of the Towneley family and now functions as a museum and art gallery.

The building was begun around 1400 and completed in quadrangular form by approximately 1500. It has undergone substantial alterations and additions over the centuries. The north-west wing was rebuilt around 1626 and widened by additions to its outer side around 1737. The north-east gatehouse range was demolished in the early 18th century. The south-west hall-range was rebuilt around 1725-26, while the south-east wing was remodelled during the 1760s and again between 1812 and 1819 by Jeffry Wyatt (subsequently Sir Jeffry Wyatville). Wyatt also added an external basement passage, a porch to the front of the hall, turrets, and battlements. A north-west tower was added in 1847.

The building is constructed mostly of large sandstone rubble brought to courses with freestone dressings and hipped slate roofs concealed by embattled parapets. It is now largely in the Gothick style. The plan is U-shaped, formed by a hall-range on a north-west to south-east axis with long north-west and south-east wings.

The exterior comprises a 2-storey great hall with 4-storey corner turrets, a 3-storey north-west wing, and a 2-storey south-east wing, all with basements. The hall-range features 1:2:1 windows in a symmetrical arrangement. A projected basement serves as a plinth, with four 2-light mullioned windows to the basement. A tall square Gothick porch in the centre protects a heavy oak door inscribed "R et AHSOISTA / TW FEC A DNI MdXXX", believed to have come from Standish Hall near Wigan. The door is flanked by tall 18-pane windows with moulded surrounds. A clock face appears in the centre of the upper floor, flanked by square 3-light casements with hoodmoulds. An embattled parapet tops the range, with two downspouts and rainwater heads bearing raised lettering "R T/1726". The projecting rectangular turrets have mullioned 4-light windows to the first stage and 8-light mullion-and-transom windows above, all with hoodmoulds. The left turret displays a blocked Tudor-arched moulded doorway at ground floor level.

The rear wall of the hall-range comprises 2 unequal storeys and 4 windows, symmetrical, with raised regular quoining and a 1st-floor sillband. A central doorway with Gibbsian pilasters and an entablature with triglyphs and a prominent cornice is now furnished with full-height 21-pane sashed glazing. Tall 18-pane windows appear at ground floor and square 9-pane windows at 1st floor, all with Gibbsian surrounds.

The south-east wing features a 3-storeyed 3-window facade to the courtyard of large roughly-coursed squared rubble. The ground floor contains an unusual elliptical doorway (now blocked), apparently formed of re-used halves of a former Tudor-arched fireplace lintel, offset slightly to the right. Two small 1-light windows appear to the left and another to the right. The 1st floor has a square-headed 15th-century window above the doorway with 2 cusped lights and diamond lattice glazing in a deep cavetto-moulded reveal with a hoodmould, a cross-window to the left and a small 1-light window. The 2nd floor has 3 cross-windows. Its end wall, of 2 unequal storeys, has diagonal buttresses terminating in turrets. Early 19th-century masonry at ground floor contains a large round-headed window flanked by blind loop-lights, and a pair of 2-light windows at 2nd-floor level with hoodmoulds. The return side to the garden, likewise 2 unequal storeys and 5 windows, is symmetrical and features a very large round-headed doorway and large round-headed windows at ground floor, with early 19th-century 2-light mullioned windows with round-headed lights at 2nd-floor level.

The north-west wing is 3 storeys and 6 windows to the courtyard, with mostly early 19th-century mullioned windows at ground and 1st-floor levels. The 2nd floor retains 17th-century windows: two 8-light mullion-and-transom windows with a cross-window between these and 2 similar cross-windows to the right. Its wide end wall, with remains of former quoining in the centre of the ground floor, has two early 19th-century mullioned windows on each floor.

Internally, the great hall contains exceptionally fine Baroque plasterwork by Francesco Vassali and Martini Quadri, executed between 1725 and 1730. A contemporary cantilever staircase extends from the south end of the hall, featuring a wrought-iron balustrade by Robert Bakewell of Derbyshire.

The south-east wing contains an early 17th-century long gallery with muntin-and-rail panelling and painted lettering identifying former family portraits. Four chambers on the outer side of this gallery feature 17th and 18th-century panelling. A 17th-century staircase extends from the north end of the hall.

The north-west wing houses a 17th-century kitchen with 2 large arched fireplaces and an early 19th-century range with associated ironmongery including spits. An early 17th-century dining room features unusual diagonal panelling.

An early 16th-century chapel, relocated in the early 18th-century addition to the north-west wing from the former gatehouse wing, contains a carved oak door and richly-moulded beams. It houses an extremely fine early 16th-century Flemish carved altarpiece, installed in the late 18th century.