Gatehouse With Walls And Sets Of Gate Piers Adjoining To Front Of Burton Agnes Hall

Gatehouse with walls and sets of gate piers adjoining to front of Burton Agnes Hall

This gatehouse with adjoining walls and sets of gate piers dates to around 1610 and was designed by Robert Smythson for Sir Henry Griffiths. It has undergone later additions and alterations, including a mid-19th century extension to the walls to the west carried out for Henry Boynton.

The gatehouse is constructed of pinkish-red brick with ashlar dressings, with lead and concealed roofs. It is a 3-storey, 3-bay structure with 4-storey octagonal stair turrets at each angle. The building sits upon a chamfered plinth, with ashlar quoins to the turrets.

The central feature is a round-arched carriage opening with an imposing 3-storey ashlar surround. This surround includes moulded imposts and a figure of an angel as the keystone. On either side of the opening are caryatids which stand above ground-floor arcading and support a moulded band. Above this is a blank frieze with lozenge mouldings to the outer pilasters and a moulded cornice. A further frieze above displays a central carved achievement flanked by outer pilasters carved with figures of plenty, topped with a moulded cornice.

The outer bays contain ground-floor round-headed blind shallow ashlar arches on each side of the carriage arch. The first floor features 2-light windows with double-chamfered mullions and ovolo-moulded hoods. The second floor has similar windows with a continuous hoodmould. The building is finished with battlements.

The turrets have blind ground floors with abutting walls. The second and third floors contain 2-light windows with double-chamfered mullions and ovolo-moulded hoods. The fourth floor has 12-pane fixed-light windows set in double-chamfered surrounds. The turrets are topped with a moulded cornice, ogeed roofs with finials, and octagonal ridge stacks.

The rear of the gatehouse features a carriage arch with a figure of an angel supporting a moulded cornice. Above this is a 4-light mullion-and-transom window in a double-chamfered surround. The outer bays and turrets have 2-light double-chamfered mullion windows with ovolo-moulded hoods. The ground-floor entrances to the turrets have Tudor-arched surrounds with chamfered jambs.

Within the carriage arch interior, there is a blocked elliptically-arched opening and two Tudor-arched recesses with chamfered jambs, with a chamfered beam forming the ceiling.

The adjoining walls extend approximately 80 metres to the west on a curved plan and approximately 40 metres to the east, reaching a height of approximately 3 metres. They rest upon a chamfered plinth and are capped by a cogged band with rubbed brick copings that are bell-shaped in section. The eastern wall has three buttresses with offsets at its easternmost end. The western wall has an elliptically-arched pedestrian entrance approximately 4 metres to the west of the gatehouse, fitted with a studded plank door, and a further flat-arched pedestrian entrance with a board door at the westernmost end.

The gate piers adjoining the eastern wall are square on plan, approximately 4 metres high, with moulded ashlar plinths and capitals. They are surmounted by lions rampant holding wrought-iron lances, with studded double plank doors between them. A similar pair of 19th-century piers for the stable yard are located in the western wall. A further stable yard entrance at the western end, now blocked, has square piers with a moulded plinth and cornice topped by shaped finials.