Oakwood Hall Including Balustraded Retaining Wall Attached To Portico

Oakwood Hall, built between 1856 and 1859 for James Yates, is a large house that now serves as offices for Rotherham Health Authority. It is constructed from coursed, dressed sandstone with a Welsh slate roof and features a double-pile plan with a contemporary wing to the right, which is set back, along with various additions to the rear. The building has two storeys and is arranged in a 1:3:1 bay configuration.

The central part of the house projects forward and has band-rusticated ashlar walling on the ground floor. It features 4-pane sash windows throughout. Stone steps lead up to a colonnaded Doric portico, which has paired front columns, a plain frieze, and a mutule cornice topped with a balustrade that includes end dies and gadrooned urns. The two-bay returns of the portico have attached single columns, an entablature, and a balustrade similar to the front, but without urns. The entablature continues above the flanking windows of the central part, and the balustrade cornice acts as a sill band for the first-floor windows, which have sill blocks and shouldered and eared architraves. The outer bays also feature shouldered and eared architraves on the windows of each floor, along with a first-floor band and sill band.

The building has a modillioned eaves cornice topped with a balustrade featuring dies. The hipped roof is complemented by corniced stacks flanking a central lantern and a matching ridge stack to the right. The right wing, which is set back, consists of a two-bay link-block leading to a three-storey tower with archivolts on the ground-floor windows and a hipped roof with a cruciform stack. Each return of the main range has a canted two-storey bay. Curved retaining walls on either side of the portico are adorned with balustrades featuring dies and gadrooned urns.

Inside, the entrance hall has a tiled and marble floor, a cantilevered staircase with a cast-iron balustrade, and an arcaded landing. James Yates was a prominent industrialist in Rotherham, known for his partnership in the Yates and Haywood foundry. C19 directories indicate that he moved from Carr House to Oakwood Hall by 1859. The hall also served as a hospital during and after the First World War.