Flats 1 To 3 Inclusive Redbourne Hall Redbourne House

Flats 1 to 3 inclusive, Redbourne Hall and Redbourne House

Country house, now divided into flats. The building originates from the early 18th century, built for the Carter Estate, with substantial mid to late 18th century alterations possibly by John Carr of York, undertaken for Reverend Robert Carter Thelwall. Further alterations followed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries for Lord William Beauclerk, and again in the late 19th century for the Dukes of St Albans. The house comprises a west wing (Redbourne Hall) forming the principal front, of 18th century origins but rebuilt around 1820 to 1830, with a late 19th century stairhall wing to the south and an early 20th century courtyard entrance. The east range (Redbourne House and Flats 1 and 2) dates from the early 18th century and was raised in the later 18th and early 19th centuries. A kitchen wing of around 1820 to 1830 adjoins to the right (Flat 3), and a carriage house dating from 1854 stands to the rear, now partly incorporated into the house.

The west wing is constructed of squared limestone with red brick dressings and a brick bow window; the east range is of red brick in Flemish bond. The slate roofs are throughout, except the carriage house, which has a grey brick construction with a slate roof to its central section and flagstone roofs to its lower wings. The house is approximately L-shaped in plan, with a 3-room west wing featuring an entrance and stairhall to the south and a main entrance to the east. The east range is double-depth with 3 rooms, a 2-room former kitchen wing to the right, and a T-shaped carriage house and stables to the rear.

The west front comprises a 2-storey symmetrical section of 5 bays to the left, featuring a single-bay full-height bow window with a lower 2-storey 2-bay wing to the right. An ashlar plinth appears to the left and a limestone plinth to the right, with brick quoins throughout. The entrance to the third bay has a French window with glazing bars and a large 6-pane overlight, flanked by full-length slightly recessed unequal 15-pane sashes in rubbed-brick surrounds with sills and flat arches. First floor windows are 12-pane sashes in similar surrounds. The bow window, retaining a lower section from the 18th century, has 3 unequal 15-pane sashes in wooden architraves with sills and blind boxes with scrolled brackets beneath stucco flat arches; the first floor sashes are similar, with the central sash having a stucco flat arch and those to either side with flat arches. The wing to the right has a 12-pane sash in architrave with sill and blind box beneath an ashlar lintel, with a blind window panel to the right. First floor sashes are similar. A moulded wooden eaves cornice runs across. The roof is hipped to the main range with end and axial stacks, and hipped to the lower right section. The right return features a recessed glazed door in a brick surround flanked by 12-pane sashes in architrave; similar first-floor windows appear above. The courtyard entrance front to the west wing has a projecting ground-floor section flanking a tall projecting porch and a projecting ground-floor bowed section to the right with a domed roof. The entrance has a 2-fold fielded-panel door and fanlight in a reveal with rusticated brick jambs and a keyed ashlar arch with raised impost bands beneath a moulded pediment, the impost bands terminating in carved ashlar brackets supporting the porch sides. Single 12-pane sashes flank the entrance and another sash appears to the bowed section.

The east range is 3 storeys tall and 7 bays wide, with a 2-storey 4-bay wing to the right. The left section has a stucco plinth. The entrance to the third bay has a 6-panel door and 5-pane overlight in a wooden architrave beneath a flat brick arch, flanked by 12-pane sashes in flush wooden architraves with sills and flat brick arches. A 20th century 12-pane casement in an altered opening appears to the sixth bay (Flat No 2). A 20th century 2-course brick first-floor band, possibly a replacement, runs across. First floor sashes are similar, with a second-floor brick band. The second floor has two 16-pane sashes in flush wooden architraves and one 20th century casement beneath flat arches. The roof is hipped with 2 axial stacks and an end stack to the left. The wing to the right has a slightly recessed first bay with a 6-panelled door beneath a geometric overlight and segmental arch. A 20th century entrance to the second bay occupies an original window opening beneath a 6-pane casement with a rubbed brick flat arch; unequal 15-pane sashes in reveals with sills and similar arches appear to the right. First floor windows include a round-headed window with glazing bars to the first bay, and unequal 9-pane sashes in reveals with sills and flat arches. Stepped eaves and an axial stack finish this wing.

The carriage house has a central 2-storey square-plan section flanked by 3 single-storey flat-roofed sections. The southern section adjoining the house was raised to 2 storeys around 1980. A projecting entrance appears to the east, with single-storey passage and stables to the rear. A deep plinth runs around; the carriage entrance is beneath a timber lintel with stepped and corbelled brick eaves and a coped parapet. The 2-storey section features a 2-course brick first-floor band, a large lunette with ashlar sill and glazing bars, stepped eaves, a bracketed wooden cornice and a hipped roof surmounted by a rectangular lantern with glazing bars, pyramidal roof and weathervane. The wings have casements with glazing bars, ashlar sills and cambered arches. A similar lunette appears to the rear, with a blocked lunette to the south.

Interior

West wing: The circa 1820 to 1830 main rooms are arranged en suite. The two ground-floor left rooms have similar moulded cornices and ornate gilded plasterwork ceilings, although that to the left room is partly obscured by an inserted 20th century ceiling in the kitchen section. A wide fielded-panel elliptically-arched 2-fold connecting door with panelled pilasters, carved rosettes and scrolls connects them. A fitted pine cupboard with a similar surround appears in the left room. Plain pilastered ashlar chimneypieces finish both rooms. The drawing room to the right has a similar chimneypiece in grey marble, a plasterwork coffered half-domed alcove to the rear, a fluted dado rail, and a coved cornice with gilded leaf-and-dart and grapevine friezes, with a foliate ceiling rose incorporating a similar vine motif. Panelled window shutters and veneered doors in architraves complete the room. The rear stairhall contains a good open-well rosewood staircase with a bracketed string, ramped and wreathed handrail, column newels and balusters, and a wide reeded plaster cornice. A late 19th to early 20th century main oak staircase with turned balusters also appears.

East wing, left section: The ground-floor left room (Redbourne House) has early 18th century oak fielded-panelling, a panelled overmantle flanked by pilasters with carved capitals and entablature, and a carved cornice with fielded-panel doors. Six first-floor rooms (four to the front and two to the rear) feature painted fielded-panelling, moulded cornices, fielded-panel doors and shutters. The first-floor left room has a later 18th century moulded plaster cornice and arched alcoves flanking a marble chimneypiece. Plain ashlar chimneypieces appear in the other main rooms. A coved cornice and panelled plasterwork ceiling finish the first-floor passage. An early 18th century closed-string staircase with column-on-vase balusters appears to the first floor right (Flat No 2). A tunnel-vaulted entrance passage to the left (Flat No 1) has a fielded-panel screen and an early 19th century staircase with a ramped and wreathed handrail, plain balusters and column newel. The circa 1820 to 1830 section to Flat No 2 has a closed-string staircase with a ramped handrail, column balusters and newels, and elliptically-arched doors with beaded-panel reveals.

Historical context and alterations: Building accounts show that mid to late 18th century work for Reverend Robert Carter Thelwall included a bow window dated to 1770, probably that shown on a drawing by C Nattes of the west wing before its refronting. Plans submitted by John Carr of York in 1773 and 1784 may have included house alterations as well as designs for a screen wall and gateway. A date for the completion of the major 19th century rebuilding is provided by payments for furnishings to John Lovitt of Hull and for chimneypieces to John Earle made in 1827 and 1828.