Burton Agnes Hall

Burton Agnes Hall

Country house, dated 1601–1610, with the door inscribed "HF 1601" and the porch marked "1602", with additional dates of "ANO 1602" and "ANO 1603" on rainwater heads. Probably designed by Robert Smythson for Sir Henry Griffith. The hall underwent later additions and alterations, including work around 1730 for Sir Griffith Boynton, 5th Baronet, and mid to late 20th-century restorations for Marcus Wickham-Boynton by architect Francis Johnson.

The building is constructed of pinkish-orange brick in English bond with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof. It is approximately square in plan with an inner courtyard.

The south front rises three storeys with attics within gables and comprises eight bays. Bays three and six project slightly, while bays one and eight project further and are gabled with three-storey bow windows. Bays four and five share a gable. There is a moulded ashlar plinth and quoins. A flight of five steps spans the two central bays, with stone goats carrying shields on plinths at each end. The entrance to the inner return of the third bay is a 17th-century studded panelled door with a massive bronze knocker, set within a full-height ashlar architrave. The architrave is decorated with strapwork panels between fluted columns with Ionic capitals on pedestals, supporting a frieze and moulded cornice at first-floor level. Above this, fluted columns with Corinthian capitals on pedestals support a heraldic band and a plaque bearing the family motto, with a guilloche-moulded frieze and cornice. The second floor features an order of composite capitals on pedestals with the Elizabethan coat of arms between them, a guilloche frieze, and a moulded cornice surmounted by strapwork cresting. The facing return of the sixth bay has a balancing ashlar decoration in a more Classical style, extending the full height, with niches containing statues on each floor, and surmounted by similar cresting.

Bays one and eight are lit by rounded 10-light ovolo-moulded mullion-and-transom bay windows on each storey, surmounted by balconies with fluted balustrades. The gables contain casement windows in ashlar architraves. The ground floor elsewhere has full-height 24-pane sashes in moulded architraves with hoodmoulds that interrupt the continuous moulded first-floor string course, except for the second bay which has a 4-light ovolo-moulded mullion window with 6-pane casements. The first floor has 24-pane sashes in the second and seventh bays, while the central bays have 8-pane fixed lights, all within tooled ashlar architraves. A continuous moulded first-floor string course runs across the front. The second floor has unequally-hung 20-pane sashes within moulded architraves to the six central bays, with a continuous moulded second-floor string course. The central gable contains a 12-pane fixed-light casement window in a tooled ashlar architrave. Battlements crown the second and seventh bays, with ashlar copings and finials. Strapwork cresting adorns bays three and six. Groups of three star-shaped chimney stacks rise from the inner returns of bays one and eight, with similar stacks to the side and rear.

The rear (north) facade has two storeys with attics and five bays, of which bays one, three and five project and all except the centre bay have gables. The facade has quoins. The ground floor is lit by 6-, 5-, 3-, 5- and 6-light mullion-and-transom windows within double-chamfered surrounds. A first-floor band runs across the facade. The first floor is chiefly lit by 12-pane sashes with one casement window, all set within ovolo-moulded, double-chamfered architraves. The attics have 3-light, ovolo-moulded, double-chamfered mullion windows under hoodmoulds with quoined jambs. The rear facade has battlements and ashlar copings.

The west facade is irregular, rising two storeys with attics to gables, and comprises seven bays, of which the third and fifth project slightly. The northern bay has a 6-sided canted bay, while the southern bay has a 5-sided, three-storey bay window. The facade has quoins. The entrance is a 6-fielded-panel door within a tooled surround. The ground floor has 4-, 3-, 5-, 4- and 2-light mullion-and-transom windows. The northern canted bay has a 2-light mullion window, and above the door is a 3-light mullion window. The southern bay is lit by 10-light double-chamfered ovolo-moulded mullion-and-transom windows on each floor. A moulded first-floor string course runs across the facade. The first floor has an 8-light mullion-and-transom window within an ovolo-moulded, double-chamfered surround in the sixth bay, while elsewhere long 12- and 18-pane sashes are set in double-chamfered architraves. A second-floor string course continues across the facade. The first bay has a 3-light mullion window at second-floor level. The sixth bay features a Venetian window with a 35-pane unequally-hung sash with radial glazing to the head in the centre, flanked by long 12-pane sashes, with Ionic pilasters to the architrave. Ashlar copings and star stacks complete the facade.

The east facade ranges from two to three storeys with attics across ten bays. The southernmost bay is a 5-sided, three-storey bay, while the northernmost is a 2-storey canted bay. The sixth bay contains a garden entrance with steps leading to a glazed door with overlight, set in a bolection-moulded, eared architrave. The southern canted bay is lit by 10-light, double-chamfered, ovolo-moulded mullion-and-transom windows on each floor. The north bay has 8-light double-chamfered ovolo-moulded mullion-and-transom windows on both floors. The ground and first floors are elsewhere lit by 18-pane sashes within moulded architraves, with continuous hoodmoulds. The third floor features a Venetian window matching that on the west facade. The attics have 2- and 3-light mullion windows in ovolo-moulded, double-chamfered surrounds beneath hoodmoulds. Battlements, ashlar copings and star-shaped stacks complete the facade.

The interior retains many 17th and 18th-century features. The Great Hall contains a magnificent Elizabethan plaster screen dated 1603, with biblical, allegorical and mythological figures, together with elaborately carved oak panelling. A massive alabaster chimney-piece, carved with the Wise and Foolish Virgins and incorporating the arms of Sir Thomas Boynton and his three wives, was brought from the now-demolished Barmston Hall. Plasterwork to the ceiling dates from around 1720–1730.

The drawing room retains Elizabethan oak panelling carved with decorative blind arches between pilasters and a strapwork frieze. The overmantel features an allegorical Dance of Death, and the ceiling dates from the early 18th century. The Chinese Room is lined with lacquer panels dating from around 1700, which were brought in around 1732, and a Rococo pine chimney-piece was installed in the late 20th century. The dining room has an early 17th-century chimney-piece with an overmantel depicting the Virtues and Vices, originally from the long gallery, and an early 18th-century cornice. The inner hall retains carved Elizabethan panelling and a continuous newel staircase with newel posts linked by a series of elaborately carved arches and bobbin balusters. The first floor includes an early to mid-18th-century panelled drawing room. The King's State Bedroom has carved panelling and a ribbed stucco ceiling dated around 1603. The Queen's State Bedroom has panelling following a geometrical pattern derived from Serlio, a chimney-piece and overmantel with allegorical figures of Patience, Truth, Constancy and Victory dated 12 July 1610, and a stucco ceiling decorated with intertwining leaf and flower patterns. The Justice's Room has painted linenfold panelling from around 1530 with portrait medallions from Kilnwick Hall, Driffield (demolished 1951), previously at Leconfield Castle, Beverley. The second floor contains a long gallery, restored by Francis Johnson in 1974. The west wing, not fully inspected, contains further early 17th-century panelled rooms, some with overmantels carved with allegorical figures and decorative plaster ceilings. Some rooms have linenfold panelling, others early 18th-century bolection-moulded panelling.