Ryelands House

Ryelands House

Large house, now welfare and social centre, built circa 1836 with substantial additions in 1883. The original house was constructed for Jonathan Dunn, twice mayor of Lancaster. In 1874 the estate was purchased by James Williamson, who later became Lord Ashton in 1895. Williamson commissioned the architectural firm Paley and Austin to make various improvements to the estate, including a major extension to Ryelands House in 1883, for which original drawings survive.

The building is constructed in sandstone ashlar with ashlar dressings and has slate hipped roofs. It is designed in the Greek Revival style and follows an L-plan within a rectangular footprint, comprising a main range on an east-west axis with an added wing at the west end and various service extensions in the angle between them. The structure is mostly 2 storeys, but features a distinctive 3-storey tower at the north end of the wing.

The symmetrical entrance front on the east elevation displays 2 storeys and 3 bays. It is dominated by a pedimented tetrastyle porch with feathered Doric capitals to the columns, a frieze decorated with roundels, and a pediment made in a single block. The wide doorway contains a glazed round-ended porch door with an overlight of matching pane design. The flanking bays are slightly projected and have first-floor sill bands carried across the centre bay. The ground floor features tall 12-pane sashed windows with plain reveals and shallow raised pediment-shaped cornices above the lintels. The first floor has 9-pane sashed windows. A hipped roof of shallow pitch with projecting eaves and 2 ridge chimneys flanking the middle bay completes the front.

Attached at the right-hand end is a small single-storey 3-bay addition with pilasters, a doorway in the first bay and windows in the others.

The original south facade comprises 5 bays with fenestration matching that of the east elevation. To the left stands the added 1883 wing, slightly set back. This wing features a projected centre with a large rectangular bay window at ground floor and two 4-pane sashes above.

The tripartite west facade includes a set-back 3-bay central range with a prominent 2-storey pedimented bay window at its centre, containing pilastered tripartite sashed windows on both floors. The windows in the outer bays have moulded architraves. The opening to the left at ground floor is a doorway to a former conservatory, and an iron spiral fire escape is now positioned in this angle. Tall chimneys flank each end of the ridge.

To the left stands a square 3-storey tower with a raised central panel to full height, finished with a pediment above the cornice. The tower features coupled sashed windows at the first and second floors on its north side. It is topped with a moulded cornice, balustraded parapet with urn finials at the corners, and a low central turret with an emphatically swept lead-clad pyramidal roof with ball and spike finial. An ornamental iron bracket supporting a bell is attached at the left corner of the first floor. The east side of the tower has a chimney stack serving the kitchen.

Interior features include a large entrance hall with an egg-and-dart cornice and a dogleg staircase with very ornate bronze balusters. Marble fireplaces of varied designs are distributed throughout. The dining room in the west wing is finished with pilasters, a modillioned plaster cornice, and pedimented doorcases. The kitchen at ground floor of the tower has a double fireplace with a surround decorated in Renaissance style. The housekeeper's room retains original built-in cupboards.