Thundercliffe Grange

SK39SE ROTHERHAM GRANGE LANE (east side, off) 4/41 Thundercliffe Grange - II

Country house,formerly a hospital now flats. 1776-85 by John Platt for the 3rd Earl of Effingham, later additions and alterations. Ashlar sandstone, Welsh slate roof. 2 storeys with attic (possibly of later date), 7 x 6 bays; low 2-storey service wing attached to right return set around quadrangle. Entrance front: 2:3:2 bays, central 3 bays break forward and have pediment to 2nd storey. Plinth. Enclosed central porch (added) has double doors flanked by paired pilasters, arms carved in panel beneath entablature. Flanking bays have sashes with glazing bars with projecting sills and cornices. lst-floor band, sashes as ground floor but without cornices. Cornice rises to form pediment with oeil-de-boeuf in tympanum. Attic: blocking course forms plinth to pilasters clasping angles and paired flanking central bays. 6-pane sashes, 2 inserted casements above pediment. Full entablature. Hipped roof with rendered ridge stacks: 2 to front ridge, 2 to left ridge; elongated end stack to right. Service wing to right has projecting sills to renewed casements and lintels tooled as voussoirs. Ridge stacks. Rear: tripartite porch with pediment. Outer bays bowed and with single tripartite window to ground and 1st floors (window to ground-floor left now with door). Similar window above porch has sill blocks and central feature beneath slight cornice flanked by sashes with glazing bars. Cornice with central broken pediment. Attic: 6-pane sashes to central and outer bays, inserted casements flanking central bay. Service wing to left now altered and cement-rendered. Left return of main house has enlarged doorway to bay 4 with fire escape to its left. Attic storey has paired pilasters flanking bays 2 and 5. Interior: entrance hall has 2 semi-domed niches and contemporary side-wall fireplace. Inner entrance hall lit by roof lantern and with cantilevered staircase with cast-iron balustrade; round-arched arcade to landing. Dining room to front right has plaster wall panels and marble fireplace in wood surround. Room to rear right has Tuscan-pillared division. Home of the Effingham family following their move from Holmes Hall near the developing Walker ironworks of Masbrough. Platt's journal (cited in Ross) records several visits to the Grange including one to dine with Lord Effingham on 25th October 1783, the probable completion date of the house. C. M. Ross,John Platt Mason-Architect, Clifton Park Museum, Information Sheet 11, 1984, p8.

Listing NGR: SK3786593672