Hellaby Hall

BRAMLEY HELLABY LANE SK59SW (west side) 3/26 Hellaby Hall GV II* Large house. c1690 for Ralph Fretwell; C18 rear wing; derelict at time of resurvey. Ashlar limestone facade, otherwise coursed rubble limestone retaining some original render; pantile roof. 2 storeys with basement and attic, 5 x 3 bays with lower 2-bay wing to rear left. Plinth, chamfered quoins. Blocked central door with architrave and keystone, flanking pilasters over which cornice breaks forward beneath an open segmental pediment. Flanking bays have blocked windows with aprons rising from plinth, moulded sills and raised surrounds. 1st floor: band breaks forward beneath aprons of similar windows as does cornice over; bays 2 and 4 blind, the others glazed. Attic storey has central 3 windows set in raised strips with sills and cornices; central window unglazed, others are blind cross windows; the windows set beneath a coped, shaped gable which rises from large Baroque- styled kneelers carved with foliated volutes. Hipped roof with side-ridge stacks having offset plinths and cornices. Rear: twin gables with corniced attic windows. Right return: cross windows to upper floors with surrounds linked by strips, eaves cornice. Left return: plainer cross windows survive to ground floor of bay 3 and upper floor. Wing on left has a bricked cross window to each floor. Interior: vandalised and partly gutted by fire at tine of resurvey. Remains of panelled plaster ceilings, remains of a grand staircase with square newels and turned balusters. Large, arched fireplaces to rear-left room and to later kitchen in rear wing. Original interior scheme recorded by RCHM. Ralph Fretwell made his fortune planting sugar in Barbados from where the influence of houses built in the Dutch style may be seen in Hellaby. Braithwell parish registers record that his 2nd daughter Morafe was baptised on 14th February 1690 at the house of Mr. Eyre in Bramley as Hellaby Hall was not yet finished. Fretwell died in 1701 and an inventory of his possessions at Hellaby is published elsewhere (Hey p150-lsl). D. Hey, Buildings of Britain 1550-1750 Yorkshire, 1981, (pp55-58 and above). RCHM report.

Listing NGR: SK5057692271