Thornton Hall, Pavilion Wings And Flanking Screen Walls

Thornton Hall, Pavilion Wings and Flanking Screen Walls

A small country house built between 1695 and 1700 for Sir Rowland Wynne. Internal alterations, an attic storey, pavilion wings and flanking screen walls were added in 1769, possibly by John Billington. The attic was raised again in the 19th century, and the left wing underwent alterations in the 20th century.

The building is constructed of rubbed red brick in Flemish bond with limestone ashlar dressings. The main block has a slate roof, while the wings are covered with pantiles. The plan comprises two rooms to the front with double depth, an entrance hall to the right and a stairhall to the rear.

The main block is three storeys tall with seven bays arranged symmetrically. The narrow single side bays are set back and carry chimneys. A flight of five stone steps leads to the central entrance, which has a two-fold six-fielded-panel door and eight-pane overlight in an eared architrave. The architrave features a pulvinated frieze, panelled pilasters and carved consoles supporting a broken segmental pediment. The ground and first floor windows are 18-pane sashes in similar eared architraves with moulded cills, pulvinated friezes and segmental pediments. These sashes have heavy glazing bars. A bold wooden acanthus modillion cornice runs across the façade. The attic storey, constructed in two phases, contains recessed 12-pane sashes with cills and flat brick arches, beneath a stone-coped parapet. The side bays have narrow 12-pane sashes to the ground and first floors in ashlar architraves with cills. The 1769 downpipes in the angles feature ornate rainwater heads decorated with the Wynne arms or monogram. The roof is hipped.

The building has an axial stack with quoins and pairs of massive lateral stacks of two stages with quoins and moulded ashlar cornices.

The two pavilions match the style and materials of the main block and project slightly forward from the side bays. They have quoins, an ashlar cill band, and 12-pane ground floor sashes in reveals with flat rubbed brick arches. A three-course brick first floor band (with the top course moulded) carries six-pane first floor sashes in similar openings. The eaves are finished with a painted stepped and dentilled brick cornice. Each pavilion has a hipped roof and a pair of large axial stacks with brick bands and stepped cornices.

The flanking screen walls are set back to either side and incorporate later extensions to the house. Curved sections contain round-headed arcades with two-course brick impost bands, stepped cornices and stone coping. The right wall comprises three bays with a ramped wall to the right end and later openings for outbuildings. The left wall features a round arch with 20th-century French windows and two similar windows in a five-bay curved arcade, which continues as a coped garden wall.

The rear of the main house block has a chamfered plinth with pairs of two-light chamfered ashlar mullion cellar windows flanking a central two-fold half-glazed door with a 20th-century hood. Sashes sit in flush wood architraves under flat rubbed brick arches, with a wooden modillion cornice above. A leaded casement lights the right side bay, and casements with glazing bars serve the pavilions. An ornate dentilled rainwater head to the left side bay is inscribed "Chapman Fecit 1769".

Interior

The entrance hall features fielded-panel dado with moulded rail and a stone bolection-moulded chimneypiece with bolection overmantel, fluted pilasters and moulded cornice. A round-headed doorway with panelled pilasters, keyed archivolt and cornice gives access to the stairhall.

The stairhall contains a very fine open well cantilevered oak staircase with a ramped handrail. Each wide tread is fitted with pairs of column-on-vase balusters with rounded knops. The dado is panelled with pilasters supporting the rail.

Each of the three main ground floor rooms has very fine bolection panelling, moulded skirting, dado rail and cornice. Each room contains a bolection chimneypiece with panelled overmantel, large six-fielded panel doors, and fielded-panel window reveals and shutters in architraves. The front left room has a stone chimneypiece with carved frieze and mantlepiece. The rear right room contains a round-headed cupboard with panelled pilasters, keyed archivolt and fielded-panel doors.

The first floor hall has a round-headed door with pilasters, keyed archivolt with pulvinated frieze and cornice. The first floor rooms each have partial bolection and fielded panelling, moulded dado rail, cornice, bolection chimneypieces and panelled overmantel. The chimneypiece in the front left room features carved frieze work. Closets open off the first floor rooms in the side bays.

A good staircase serving the first and second floors, probably the original main staircase from the 1690s, has a pulvino cornice string, moulded handrail and drop-on-bulb balusters with circular knops. A late 18th to early 19th-century stone staircase to the right pavilion has a ramped handrail and plain balusters.

The cellar comprises three bays with an elliptical brick barrel vault.