Crosby Hall

Crosby Hall

Manor house on Back Lane, Little Crosby. Built circa 1784-1786 as a rebuilding of an earlier house, with some earlier fabric surviving internally. The building was subsequently enlarged but reduced again in the 1950s.

The house is constructed in sandstone ashlar with 3-span hipped roofs of green slate. It is approximately square in plan with small full-height corner turrets to the front and a canted bay to the rear.

The exterior presents 3 storeys with a 2:1:2 window arrangement, almost symmetrical in composition. A modillioned cornice runs around the building, and a small pediment crowns the centre, flanked by the hipped ends of the side-span roofs. The centre bay features a doorway with double part-glazed doors and a moulded architrave with floating cornice. Above this is a 19th-century Venetian window at first floor level with a mask in the tympanum and a triple keystone, and a Diocletian window at second floor also with a triple keystone. A carved shield of arms sits within the pediment. The flanking bays have pairs of sashed windows with glazing bars on each floor; those at ground floor are offset slightly to the right, while those at second floor are square.

Both corner turrets rest on plinths. The left turret is blind and displays two ex situ pieces of carved datestone at second floor level on the front: the upper lettered "R[]BAB" with a small shield between the first two letters, and the lower reading "WB 1576". On the left return side of this turret is another ex situ datestone with a shield in the centre, raised letters "WB" and "EB" on the left and right arms respectively, "NB" on the shaft, "1609" on the base, and an anvil supported by a bearer at the top. A further ex situ datestone built into the wall of a small rear yard also bears the initials WB and the date 1609. The right-hand turret has only one very small inserted window at first floor on the re-entrant side and another at second floor on the front.

Both return sides have been remodelled following the removal of later additions. The left return has a 20th-century brick outshut. The right return (garden front) now features an ex situ tetrastyle Ionic portico, removed circa 1955 from Claughton Hall, Garstang, Lancashire, along with various tall sashed windows. At the rear, the centre displays a doorway offset to the left at ground floor, a Venetian window at first floor, and a Diocletian window at second floor, all beneath a pediment. To the left is a full-height 2-storey canted bay with tall segmental-headed windows at ground floor (the library) and short 9-pane sashes above. To the right, the third bay extends for 3 storeys with sashed windows on all floors; those at first floor are much taller than the others.

The interior contains an entrance hall with flanking mahogany doors and an elliptical arch to the stair-hall. To the right is a morning room with a low ceiling and 2 boxed beams. Behind this is a very tall early 19th-century library with built-in mahogany bookcases and a Classical frieze. An open-well staircase features a walnut dado, balustrades, and a wreathed handrail.

Earlier fabric is visible throughout the house. A stone mullioned window survives in the pantry at the north-east corner. Muntin-and-rail panelled dado work appears in the centre and south rooms at first floor, and full-height panelling of similar character exists in the north room at second floor. At least one 17th-century roof truss survives, marked with the carpenter's mark "II".

The house was the manorial home of the Blundell family, lords of the manor of Little Crosby since medieval times.