Middlethorpe Hall

Country house, now hotel, built around 1700 with flanking wings added in the mid-18th century. The building was altered extensively in the early 19th century and underwent further changes and restoration in the 20th century, notably around 1980. It was built for Thomas Barlow.

The house is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings. Rusticated stone quoins, a stone plinth, storey bands, and a moulded stone cornice feature throughout. Roofs are hipped slate with brick stacks, some external, finished with stone cornices and weathering. Stone steps lead to central doors on both the entrance and garden fronts.

Both fronts display 3-bay attic centrepieces crowned with the Barlow crest, an eagle displayed.

The entrance front comprises three storeys with a basement and seven bays, with one-storey wings set back at both sides. Basement windows are 2-light mullioned openings, some retaining small-pane glazing and others partly blocked, set in plain surrounds. The central Tuscan porch is pedimented and contains a 6-panelled front door with raised and fielded panels and a patterned fanlight set within an eared bolection moulded surround. The ground and first floor windows are unequal 15-pane sashes, while second-floor windows are 12-pane sashes. Windows in the centre of the first and second floors have eared and fasciated surrounds with moulded cornices; the remainder have plain keyed surrounds with moulded sills. The attic centrepiece is panelled between pilasters and capped with a moulded cornice.

The garden front is similarly disposed to the entrance front, with one-storey, three-bay flanking wings articulated by Composite pilasters. Two 2-light mullioned basement windows survive in the centre block; others are replaced with squat 6-pane sashes, all in plain surrounds. In the wings, windows are similar, set beneath segmental brick arches. The central porch features columns with palm leaf necking, a frieze, and cornice, with double doors of raised and fielded panelling and a patterned fanlight. Door surrounds, windows, and window surrounds follow the detailing of the entrance front. The centrepiece panels are enriched with swags. Pilasters in the flanking wings rise from a plain plinth band that runs continuously as the sill beneath tall 18-pane sash windows in plain keyed surrounds, one in each bay. The pilasters carry an entablature surmounted by a brick parapet with stone balustrading over each bay. The returns consist of four bays and are partly obscured by added wings, with original windows corresponding to those on the main fronts. Throughout the house, a number of windows are blind.

The interior is exceptionally well-appointed and largely intact.

On the ground floor, the entrance hall has a stone-flagged floor and a black marble fireplace in a bolection moulded surround. Doorcases are enriched with bolection moulded details and replacement friezes. Fielded panel shutters and a dentilled cornice to a coved ceiling complete the space.

The room to the left is fully panelled in two heights between panelled pilasters. It contains a white marble fireplace surround with an overmantel panel flanked by pilasters, a bolection moulded doorcase with an 8-panel door, and fielded panel shutters.

The stairhall features a black and white chequered floor and a moulded round arch opening to the entrance hall on panelled pilasters enriched with applied floral drops, with a pulvinated frieze and moulded keyed cornice above. Two carved doorcases display enriched pulvinated friezes, cornices, and 8-panel doors. The principal staircase rises to the first floor and is supported beneath its third flight by a fluted Corinthian column. The staircase has fluted column balusters on carved bulbous bases with a heavy moulded handrail ramped up to square panelled newels. Tread ends and the handrail are carved with foliage sprays. A matching panelled dado lines the stairwell.

The room to the rear right contains a white marble fireplace flanked by alcoves. The fireplace has pilaster jambs enclosing drops suspended from lion mask frieze blocks, with a cornice shelf enriched with flutes and paterae. Alcoves feature similar cornices and fluted jambs. Doorcases are carved with acanthus, with 8-panel doors, and fielded panel shutters complement an enriched cornice.

The right (west) wing contains a white marble fireplace with panelled pilaster jambs and a frieze incorporating mouldings of musical instruments and militaria. Door and window cases are simply reeded. An enriched cornice and dado rail are present, along with beaded panel shutters. A delicate moulded plaster ceiling enriches the space.

The room to the rear left is fully lined with panelling, some bolection moulded, incorporating an eared marble fire surround and balancing round-arched centrepieces flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters. The moulded cornice and frieze are enriched with acanthus carvings. Doorcases are likewise carved with acanthus; one has an 8-moulded-panel door and the other a 5-panel door. Fielded panel shutters complete the arrangement.

The left (east) wing contains a smaller fully panelled room.

A secondary staircase rises from the basement to the attics, featuring a close string, bulbous balusters, square newels with attached half balusters, and a heavy moulded handrail.

On the first floor, the principal staircase landing has four bolection moulded doorcases and an enriched dentilled cornice to a coved ceiling with central plaster mouldings. The remainder of the interior was not inspected in detail, though the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments record notes that rooms on the first and second floors are fully fitted with fireplaces, panelling, cornices, and doorcases.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu resided in the house between 1713 and 1715.

The house stands as a fine and remarkably complete example of an 18th-century country house, distinguished by its finely fitted interiors and architectural quality.