Sandbeck Park (House)

Sandbeck Park is a country house of Grade I importance, with a 17th-century core extensively remodelled in the 18th and 19th centuries. The original house was built in 1626 for Sir Nicholas Saunderson. It passed to Thomas Lumley, later 3rd Earl of Scarbrough, who died in 1752. The 4th Earl of Scarbrough employed architect James Paine around 1760 to encase and extend the earlier building in the Palladian style. Later interior remodelling was undertaken in 1857 by William Burn for the 9th Earl. A 19th-century service wing that linked the house to Sandbeck Chapel was demolished in 1954.

The house is constructed of ashlar magnesian limestone and rises three storeys over a basement, with a plan of 9 by 5 bays. The west entrance front follows a 1:2:3:2:1 bay arrangement, with the central and outer bays breaking forward. At the centre is a single-storey 19th-century entrance hall in an extension, containing a vestibule of 1906 with a Doric portico beneath a central pediment bearing arms in the tympanum, flanked by shield-bearing griffins. The portico has rebated, rounded front corners and a balustraded parapet with ball finials having bands. The 3-bay returns have 4-pane sashes flanking pilastered central bays which break forward. The main range has a plinth and rusticated ground floor with sashes having glazing bars beneath flat arches. A balustrade attached to the front left corner screens the remains of the basement wall of the 19th-century service wing.

On the first floor, moulded string courses and a moulded sill band run beneath taller sashes with glazing bars. The outer bays have balustraded aprons and corniced architraves; the others have cornices only. The central window is taller and round-headed, with pilasters and an archivolt. The second floor contains 6-pane sashes, the central three windows being smaller. A modillioned cornice rises as pediments over the central and outer bays, with the central tympanum carved with a pelican on a medallion. A balustraded parapet with 20th-century fibreglass urns crowns the facade. Tall corniced chimney stacks flank the 2-bay recesses.

The rear (east) front has a basement storey with rack-faced rustication and 6-pane sashes. The outer bays match the front elevation, but with corniced architraves to all first-floor windows; bays 1 and 9 have consoles. The central pediment extends over a Corinthian portico with balustraded quadrant staircases rising to an arcaded loggia. The loggia has round arches with shaped keystones. A first-floor string course and balustraded plinth sit beneath giant columns rising to a pedimented entablature bearing carving by William Collins depicting Ceres resting on the Lumley arms.

The south (right) return displays a 1:3:1 bay arrangement. The central 3 bays are canted with taller ground-floor sashes; the central bay has an open segmental pediment with a sash above and a corniced architrave, while the others are plain.

The interior contains notable features. A cantilevered stone staircase rises from the entrance hall with curved iron balusters and a wreathed wooden handrail, with a compartmented ceiling above. The ground-floor room to the right, originally the sitting room, has a fireplace with caryatids and a relief tablet beneath a cornice. The dining room at the centre rear features a 19th-century scheme with an Ionic screen and heavy cornice. Most significant is the central 17th-century first-floor gallery, which extends the full depth of the house. This gallery displays an 18th-century scheme by James Paine with an Ionic-columned fireplace bearing a pastoral scene on a tablet attributed to William Collins. The gallery contains four ornate doorcases and an outstanding coved ceiling with Rococo and Neo-Classical motifs, thought to be the work of Joseph Rose the elder. Bedrooms flanking the gallery each feature a segmentally-arched bed recess flanked by Ionic columns with panelled doors.