Darley Cliffe Hall Including Attached Front Garden Wall And Dwellings Known As Tudor House And Dower Cottage

Darley Cliffe Hall, Including Attached Front Garden Wall and Dwellings Known as Tudor House and Dower Cottage

A large house, now subdivided into three dwellings, with an attached front garden wall. The building comprises a late 17th-century main house (refenestrated in the 18th century) incorporating an earlier 17th-century service wing, with later 17th-century and 19th-century additions.

The main structure is built of coursed, squared and ashlar sandstone with stone slate roofs. It follows a double-pile plan, rising to two storeys with basement and attic over five bays, with a single-storey bay on the right and a gabled side-wing on the left containing two storeys with attic over three bays. The side-wing has a set-back section to the rear left featuring a 19th-century two-storey, two-bay addition. The front garden wall is constructed of brick.

The five-bay principal facade features ashlar corner strips and is approached by 1/2-round steps leading to a double door with 4-pane overlight set in a bolection-moulded architrave beneath a consoled segmental pediment. Ground-floor windows comprise flanking 2-light mullioned cellar windows on a band. Other bays contain unequally-hung 15-pane sashes in raised surrounds with bead-moulded inner arrises. The first floor has a band, with the central window displaying a shouldered and eared architrave in a rusticated panel. The eaves cornice breaks forward over the corners and centre. The hipped roof contains three roof lights and two corniced stacks set in a roof well.

To the right of the main facade is an old single-bay wing with a 3-light casement and capped end stack; a lower hipped-roof lean-to adjoins it, containing a doorway. The right return has an original cross-window with 24 leaded panes to the lower lights and 12 panes above. The rear of Darley Cliffe Hall mirrors the front in its treatment.

The front garden wall forms a rectangular enclosure with a plinth and soffit-moulded copings, terminated by square end piers. Central gate piers, similarly detailed, feature flanking consoles, cornices and vase finials (now repositioned to each side). Horse-mounting steps and a platform occupy the left return of the wall.

The gabled wing to the front left (Tudor House) displays an old studded door in an ashlar surround with raised ornamental panels, flanked by casements—one of 24 panes on the left, one of 6 panes on the right. The first floor contains a blind opening flanked by two 2-light horizontal-sliding sashes; the attic window is similarly detailed. Shaped kneelers and moulded gable copings adorn the gable. The older wing set back on the left has a 3-light casement on each floor and a truncated mullioned window in the angle of the plan, with moulded gable copings and a corniced end stack on the left with brick shaft. The addition to the left (Dower Cottage) features an open-pedimented ashlar porch to the right of a 3-light horizontal-sliding sash, two 2-light windows above, and a brick end stack on the left.

Interior arrangements are varied. In Darley Cliffe Hall, the entrance hall contains a bolection-moulded fireplace. An open-well wooden staircase in the bay on the right has a balustrade and fielded-panel dado. The rear-right room features a fireplace with crinoidal limestone facing set in a wooden surround carved with a panel depicting a dog on a bridge (possibly an Aesop's fable reference). Raised wall panelling, with some panels hinged to accommodate windows of the right return, is present. The rear-left room has similar panelling with a ceiling panel bordered by exotic fruit designs. Six-panel doors and window shutters sheeted in iron occur throughout. On the first floor, the front-left room has a bolection-moulded fireplace with Georgian grate and raised panelling; the rear-right room is similar but has an earlier grate. Tudor House contains a bolection-moulded fireplace in its rear room.

Historical associations indicate that the property was owned by the Castleford family; upon the death of William (died 1613), it passed by marriage to the Adams family, and subsequently to the Parkins and Jeffcock families. In the early 19th century, it was the home of Charles Bown, agent to Earl Fitzwilliam. The building is considered an outstanding example of regional polite architectural style, a distinction that lends credence to the suggestion that Christopher Wren, known to have owned land in Worsbrough, may have influenced its design.