Barrow Hall

Barrow Hall is a grade I listed house at Barrow upon Humber, now used as a residential home. It was built in 1789 for George Uppleby, with an earlier 18th-century section to the rear and extensive mid-19th-century additions to the rear.

The building is constructed in fine red brick laid in Flemish bond with scored pointing, with limestone ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof. It is L-shaped on plan, comprising a 2-room central entrance hall to the west front of 1789, with 19th-century extensions to the rear right and a north wing to the rear left. The north wing contains the earlier 18th-century section and 19th-century services, servants' accommodation and a chapel to the east end.

The main front is symmetrical, 2 storeys and 5 bays. A deep plinth runs across the base. The entrance is reached by a perron of 6 stone steps and features a tripartite doorway with a half-glazed fielded-panel door and sidelights with glazing bars and moulded cills, all set in a pilastered Doric surround with a plain entablature. Above the entrance is a central projecting columned porch with a pediment. The ground floor has 12-pane sash windows in reveals with rubbed brick flat arches and projecting stone sills. Two ashlar bands run across the first floor, with recessed ashlar balustrades beneath. A central tripartite ashlar window with pilasters supports a cornice and pediment over the central light. The eaves feature a modillion cornice with an ashlar blocking course. The hipped roof is topped with pairs of axial and lateral chimney stacks to the rear, each with moulded ashlar cornices.

The right return has a plinth and first floor balustrade similar to the front. Single blocked windows occupy each floor of the early section, with a tripartite ground floor sash and a first floor 12-pane sash to the matching 19th-century section to the right. The south front, a 19th-century addition, has ashlar first floor bands and 12-pane sashes in reveals with rubbed brick arches and stone cills. The chapel to the rear has a bellcote with wooden traceried panels.

The interior is exceptionally fine. The hall contains Doric columns and pilasters with acanthus capitals flanking the entrance. The flagged floor is bordered by a dado rail, and doorways are set in architraves with ornate friezes and dentilled cornices. A modillioned plaster cornice runs above panelled plasterwork ceiling to the landing, which features a fan motif. The staircase is a particularly fine example: a profiled cantilevered stone construction with a spiral curtail, wreathed mahogany handrail and wrought-iron balustrade with alternating S-scrolls and pairs of wavy bars. A staircase cupboard is fitted with ornate glazing. The upper hall has a columned tripartite window and similar ceiling cornice and plasterwork to the hall below.

The ground floor left room contains a white marble chimneypiece with fluted pilasters, an entablature with alternating ovals and fluted panels in the frieze, and figured Wedgwood panels to the centre (depicting an Offering to Flora) and ends. These panels were documented as being displayed in this position in 1789—one of very few such documented examples in existence. The frieze, pilasters and a band above the moulded dado rail are finished in contemporary floral tapestries in reeded surrounds, which may be unique. The room has a dentilled cornice and delicate plasterwork ceiling with central fan and garlands, and three very fine 6-panel mahogany doors with brass fittings set in architraves.

The ground floor right room has a marble chimneypiece with Ionic columns, a Sienna frieze with oval relief panels and a dentilled cornice. A pair of 6-panel mahogany doors in architraves with ornate composition frieze and cornice open from this room. The dado rail is moulded, and the walls feature moulded sunk panels beneath a modillion cornice and delicate plasterwork ceiling. A rear room in the wing has a stone chimneypiece with a central panel and wreathed urns.

The bedrooms to the first floor front have moulded cornices and good composition chimneypieces; the centre right bedroom has a chimneypiece with consoles and a Sienna marble slip. A room in the rear wing retains a possibly earlier 18th-century coved ceiling ornamented with later 18th-century fluted bands. Re-used 18th-century balusters are fitted to the back staircase and rear entrance hall. Panelled window shutters and doors in architraves are found throughout.

The building is documented in a drawing by C Nattes from 1796, held in the Banks Collection at Lincoln City Library, and is referenced in works on Wedgwood decoration and the architecture of Lincolnshire.