Bawtry Hall

Bawtry Hall

A large house built in 1785 for Pemberton Milnes, with an addition of around 1905 for H. E. Peate and later twentieth-century additions of no special interest. The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with a slate roof.

The house is of two storeys and attic. The entrance front is arranged in a 1:5:1-bay composition with a 3:2:3-bay garden front on its left return. A wing extends to the rear-right, incorporating a water tower which was extended around 1905.

The entrance front features a recessed centre containing a panelled double door and 4-pane overlight set within a tetrastyle Tuscan porch with pilasters and pedimented entablature. The other bays are articulated with plinth and sill bands beneath sashes with glazing bars, topped by rubbed-brick flat arches. The end bay on the right contains three tall, unequally-hung 15-pane sashes of later date. The first floor repeats the band and sill band detail, with balustraded apron details beneath sashes; the central window is set within a round-arched recess that rises from the porch. A modillioned cornice sits beneath a cement-rendered and coped parapet, with a central 3-bay pediment rising from fluted blocks. The hipped roof carries three brick ridge stacks and a dentilled brick end stack on the right.

The left return (garden front) features a central margin-glazed French window flanked by pilasters and side-lights with glazing bars, set beneath a tetrastyle concrete portico with pediment and glazed roof. The outer bays are canted two-storey projections; ground-floor sashes here have metal glazing bars. Set back on the left of the garden front, partially obscured by later twentieth-century additions, the rear wing displays two gables with dentilled wooden cornices and a mansard roof. To its rear stands the water tower, articulated with raised brickwork quoins and a keyed oeil-de-boeuf beneath cornice and parapet.

Interior

The entrance hall contains an Ionic-columned screen with an archivolted doorway leading through to the stair-hall on the left. Other doorways are finished with corniced doorcases. A side-wall fireplace features a Neo-classical cast-iron fireback set in a marble surround with coloured insets, urns and stags on the frieze, with husk-garland ceiling decoration.

The adjacent dining room displays fielded-panel dado and six-panel doors in enriched pedimented doorcases. An iron fire basket is contained within an eared architrave decorated with oak-leaf frieze and cornice; the architraved overmantel with pediment (from which the painting has been removed) stands above. The ceiling is panelled with an acanthus centre feature and husk garlands framed by bold bay-leaf-enriched ribs.

The stair-hall contains a cantilevered stone staircase with ramped and wreathed handrail to a wave-form iron balustrade. The ceiling frieze displays vases and anthemion motifs with garlanded ceiling decoration.

A ground-floor room on the left of the garden front contains an excellent fireplace with twin fluted columns and entablature decorated with trophies and a marble frieze inlaid with Wedgwood panels. The inner surround is of grey and white marble with a brass fire basket. The rest of the room features fielded-panel dado and fret-pattern dado rail beneath wall panels. The ceiling has enriched ribs with delicate husk-garland design. An Ionic-columned screen at one end leads to an adjoining later room similarly decorated.

The entrance hall off the garden front has a corniced doorcase with tilted-vase decoration. A ground-floor room on the right of the garden front features a columned fireplace with Vitruvian-scrolled frieze.

On the first floor, a room on the left of the garden front has a wooden fireplace with garlands and a panel with cherubs. An adjoining room on the right has a fireplace with florets and fret design around the architrave. An adjacent room on the entrance front contains an iron fire basket in a Neo-classical surround.