Runshaw Hall

Runshaw Hall is a large house dating to 1862, now operating as a restaurant. It’s constructed of red brick with yellow stone dressings, topped by a hipped slate roof with bracketed eaves and various chimneys. The building follows a rectangular plan of 6 bays by 3.

The architectural style is Italianate with eclectic decoration. The south front, the primary entrance front, features a slight projection of the first bay. It includes a stone plinth, two horizontal bands at the first-floor level, rusticated quoins on all corners (vermiculated at ground floor level), and a doorcase near the corner. The doorcase has a flat bay with panelled pilasters and a heavily moulded entablature with a cornice, adorned with prominent carved foliage suspended from the pilaster capitals. Above the door is a window with banded jambs and a stone head with a segmental cornice. To the left of the door, the first bay has windows on both floors with elaborately carved stone architraves: the ground floor window has a pedimented entablature supported by free-standing columns and flanking pilasters, all with intricately carved capitals; the first-floor window is a Venetian window with moulded pilasters and cornices to the margin lights. To the right of the door is a large tripartite window with a cornice, topped by a pair of sash windows with banded jambs and a cornice. The upper sash of these windows, and some side windows, feature round-headed glazing.

The west front has two coupled bays slightly projecting, with interlocking pedimented gables and banded quoins; the left bay features a prominent semicircular two-storey bay. The east front has a pedimented, gabled bay centrally projecting, with banded quoins, and to the left on the ground floor, a service door with a decorative head bearing the date 1862. Other features on the north and west sides are less significant. An attached square-sectioned tower with a flat-roofed belvedere topped by ornamental railings is located at the northwest corner. The interior retains some contemporary decorative features.