Owston Hall Flats 1 To 5 And Including The Old Hall

Owston Hall: Flats 1–5 and The Old Hall

A country house now converted into six dwellings, partly unoccupied. The building comprises an early 18th-century core substantially extended in 1794–5 by the architect William Lindley for Brian Cooke.

The main 1794 addition forms an L-shaped block of two storeys with basements. The entrance front displays a 1:3:1 bay arrangement; the garden front on the left return matches this rhythm. The left side of the garden front is adjoined by a mid-to-late 19th-century conservatory (by Messenger and Company of Loughborough, established 1854), built upon a basement range. The earlier 18th-century wing, three storeys high and L-shaped, encloses a courtyard accessible via an archway at the rear of the right return. Single-storey outbuildings set in a quadrant form a linking passage from this archway to the 1794 range.

The building is rendered with ruled cement and topped with a Westmorland slate roof, with hipped roofs to the main sections and stacks positioned to the rear of the ridge.

The entrance front features a deep band above exposed basement walling. The central section projects slightly and is approached by stone steps flanked by large pedestals. The central doorway has glazed double doors and a fanlight with radial bars, with side lights beneath a decorated frieze and segmental pediment. Flanking windows between giant Ionic pilasters contain large sashes with glazing bars and sunken apron panels; the outer bay windows are similar. First-floor windows have glazing bars, the central sash distinguished by fan-shaped sill brackets and an architrave, while the outer bays have projecting sills only. A continuous eaves cornice and plain frieze run above the central three-bay pediment.

The garden front features a central curved projection with six-pane basement sashes and a deep sill band; the upper floor has unequally-hung 15-pane sashes. The outer bays contain sashes set in round-arched recesses, with first-floor windows matching the entrance front. The conservatory to the left has a possibly earlier yellow-brick plinth wall with band and sill band; its polygonal central projection is approached by nosed stone steps with a wave-form iron balustrade and has plain greenhouse glazing.

The rear elevation (the entrance front of the earlier 18th-century wing, known as The Old Hall) comprises five bays with a central doorway having sidelights beneath a pedimented cornice. Ground and first floors have sashes with glazing bars; a tripartite sash sits above the door; second-floor windows are six-pane sashes. To the left, a curtain wall incorporates remains of 16th and 17th-century windows; further round on the left return is a basket archway providing access to the courtyard.

Interior

The entrance hall has diamond-shaped paving and mahogany doorcases with garlanded friezes and plaster wall panels. The stair hall features a fluted Corinthian screen, a cantilevered stone staircase with a wreathed handrail to a wave-form iron balustrade, a tripartite sash to the stair window with pilasters and a fanlight with radial glazing bars, and landing arcading.

The front-right room, formerly the dining room but now subdivided, contains a marble fireplace and arched recesses with vine drops; the deep frieze is decorated with baskets of fruit.

The Library is oval in plan and lit from a curved bay on the garden front. It features two curved six-panel doors with beading and roundels, glazed bookcases between with lozenge-shaped lights, and an ornate frieze.

Within the rear wing (part of the earlier 18th-century range) lies another fine room, formerly the old library, now subdivided. This retains a crinoidal limestone fireplace and contemporary iron firebasket, cornice and coving.

The basement contains a wooden pump with a lead plaque dated 1832, with furnaces nearby probably from the same date.

Historical Context

Surviving drawings for the 1794–5 addition, held in the Davies-Cooke Collection, bear Lindley's name and show alternative designs for the entrance doorway. Attribution was previously given to William Porden on the basis of an unexecuted design he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1797. Humphry Repton's landscape scheme for Owston, dated 1792–3 (a photo-facsimile of which is held in the National Monuments Record), shows a proposed site for a new house some distance to the west, for which Lindley prepared drawings in 1794. The plan outlines the L-shape of the older house, which Lindley retained in his final scheme.

In 1827, P. F. Robinson submitted a proposal to alter Owston in the Grecian style to P. D. Cooke. This scheme, and an extension proposal by Woodland and Hurst, were never executed.

Detailed drawings and comprehensive building records for the project survive in the Davies-Cooke Collection, held at Doncaster Library Service Archives, King Edwards Road, Balby.