Dalton Hall

Dalton Hall is a large house, largely dating to before 1737, with substantial rebuilding and extensions carried out between 1771 and 1775 by Thomas Atkinson for Lord Hotham. The building is constructed of grey brick with stone dressings, and has slate roofs. The main block is three storeys high and five bays wide, with single-storey, three-bay flanking wings forming pavilions to the south and north. The south pavilion is two storeys and three bays, and the north pavilion is single-storey and three bays.

The main range features a hexastyle portico with an entablature and blocking course, leading to a two-leaf panelled door and a fanlight with radial glazing within an architrave. The ground floor has four two-pane sashes with margin-pane glazing and sills under floating cornices. The first floor has a narrow sill band, and five two-pane sashes with margin-pane glazing; the central sash is framed by chambranles and sits beneath a segmental pediment, while the outer sashes are beneath floating cornices. The second floor has five smaller two-pane sashes with margin-pane glazing and sills, the central one within a shouldered architrave, and the others beneath flat brick arches. A dentilled cornice runs along the top of the main range, and a balustraded parapet features a central achievement of arms and urns on piers. End stacks are present with cornices, and the roof is hipped.

The linking wings each have three two-pane sashes with margin-pane glazing under floating cornices, and a balustraded parapet. At the angle where the wings join the pavilions, there is a door and fanlight within a bow-fronted porch with detached columns and a lower, balustraded parapet. The south pavilion has three two-pane sashes with margin-pane glazing under floating cornices, the central one on brackets; it also features a first-floor band, a narrow sill band, dentilled eaves, raked cornices on a pediment with an oval cartouche containing a carved merman, and a balustraded parapet. To the north, a large axial stack with a cornice is present. The north pavilion has three two-pane sashes with margin-pane glazing and floating cornices, one of which is on brackets, and a band to a coped parapet. All ground and first-floor windows are set within architraves.

The interior has been extensively remodelled around 1840 and again in 1954, but retains original features including late 18th-century marble fireplaces and a complete set of internal doors with beaded panelling. Extensive cellars lie beneath the main hall, some of which appear to belong to an earlier structure on the site, presumably the one depicted in an engraving of 1737. NMR photographs are available.