Lytham Hall

Lytham Hall is a grade I listed manor house principally built between 1752 and 1764 by John Carr of York, though it incorporates substantially remodelled elements of an early 17th-century predecessor in courtyard ranges to the rear. The house has recently been restored.

The main building is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond with fine tuck pointing, stone dressings, and some stucco painted white, beneath a hipped roof of graduated Cumberland slate. It follows a rectangular double-depth central entrance and stairhall plan under a 2-span roof, facing east, with an earlier rectangular courtyard to the rear and a south-west wing extending from the south-west corner of that courtyard. The design is in the Palladian style.

The main range rises three storeys with a symmetrical arrangement of 3 bays on each floor. The centre breaks forwards slightly and is surmounted by a pediment. The building has rusticated quoins, a deep plinth, and sillbands to the ground and first floors. A broad stepped band separates the ground floor from the upper floors, which are very slightly set back. A giant order of engaged Ionic columns adorns the upper floors of the centre, with a plain frieze and modillioned cornice above.

The ground floor has rusticated quoins to the centre and 12-pane sashed windows with Gibbs surrounds featuring triple keystones, pulvinated friezes, and moulded cornices. The centre contains three semicircular steps leading to a round-headed doorway with a pedimented Doric architrave. The first floor carries 12-pane sashes with smooth architraves (those in the centre shouldered), including pulvinated friezes and moulded cornices. The second floor has small square 6-pane windows with plain surrounds, except those in the centre which have scrolled sills and heads. The roof features two ridge chimneys flanking the centre and lateral chimneys to the side ridges.

The 6-bay left return side is very regular, with Gibbs surrounds to the ground floor windows featuring quintuple keystones instead of cornices, and first floor windows with shouldered architraves. The 5-bay right-hand return has its centre breaking forwards slightly and similar fenestration, except that the two windows to the left at ground floor, though glazed like the others, are false and backed by panelling. This side also has a pedimented Tuscan porch to the centre and a segmental pediment to the window above. The rear of this block includes a large Venetian stair-window.

The interior contains many very fine original features and decoration. The entrance hall features bolection-moulded panels, a black-and-white diamond-pattern flagged floor, a plaster ceiling, and open-pedimented architraves to doorways. The ballroom displays Adam-style decoration and Etruscan-style painted wallpaper, gilt-framed mirrors between the windows, and a Wedgwood-style plaster ceiling (out of symmetry with the walls). The dining room features a coved buffet. The staircase hall contains a very fine imperial staircase, plaster panels depicting various trophies, and a plaster ceiling with a central relief medallion depicting Jupiter, with a Corinthian screen to the landing. Equivalent quality decoration appears throughout the first floor rooms, including the principal chamber with a screen enclosing two powder closets. At second floor level, two rooms are completely lined with 17th-century muntin-and-rail panelling, probably relocated from the earlier house.

The rear courtyard is enclosed by three low 2-storey ranges which appear to be mid-18th-century remodelling of portions of the earlier house. The north range contains the former kitchen, while the west and south ranges contain some 16th and 17th-century fabric. The most important elements are elaborately moulded beams, secondary beams and joists visible at ground floor of the west range, and a long gallery at first floor of the south range, now recognisable as such only by its lengthy undulating floor. Extending from the south-west corner of the courtyard is a long 2-storey range with a rainwater head dated 1752, said to have contained a chapel.