Norton Hall Hospital With Colonnade And Orangery

Country house, now hospital, with colonnade and orangery. Built in the late 18th century, with rear additions and an orangery constructed between 1853 and 1857, and subsequent alterations dating from around 1900 and the mid to late 20th century.

The main block is constructed of ashlar with hipped slate roofs and single side wall and rear wall coped stacks. The exterior shows classical detailing including a plinth, quoins, first and second floor bands, a cornice and blocking course. The building is three storeys tall with a seven-window range across the front. Most windows are 20th-century top-hung casements, some with glazing bars, all with moulded surrounds and keystones. The front elevation features a projecting pedimented centre containing three windows, flanked on either side by two windows. Above these are seven small six-pane sashes, the two to the left having been replaced by 20th-century casements. An open Doric colonnade of three bays marks the entrance, with a cornice and flanking pilasters. The central door is flanked by single large windows with overlights.

The left return has five windows on each floor. A 19th-century addition extends to the left, two storeys tall with a three-window range, featuring a canted hipped central bay window with three windows on each floor, flanked by single windows, and a coped side wall stack. To the left again is a 19th-century two-storey block with a rendered first floor, containing three partly reglazed windows and, below, two larger plain sashes. Further to the left, at right angles, an eight-bay colonnade with Doric columns, cornice and blocking course leads to the orangery. The orangery is taller, with quoins, cornice and blocking course, and three tall round-arched openings with keystones. The colonnade and orangery have their openings filled in with two large glazing bar windows inserted in each bay. The right return has five windows on each floor, with four ground floor ones being wooden cross casements with overlights. A lower two-storey 18th-century range extends to the right, with two large coped ridge stacks and three 18-pane sashes, the left one partly blocked at the foot. A low four-column Doric portico flanks two 24-pane sashes, with a low door beneath flanked by single oval windows with keystones. A two-storey wing to the right features a three-light stone mullioned window and below, two tall glazing bar sashes. The rear elevation is irregular with various mid-20th-century additions.

The interior contains an entrance hall with a strapwork frieze and plasterwork ceiling, and a cantilever stone open-well stair with cast-iron balustrade and enriched plaster dado and wall panels. A Venetian stair window lights the first floor, and a mid-20th-century lift shaft has been inserted in the stair well. A plain rear stair features iron stick balusters. The panelled Wren Room, dating from around 1900, has a modillion cornice and enriched coved cross beam ceiling with an oval central panel. A rear recess contains a cornice and fluted wooden Corinthian columns. A marble fireplace with a 17th-century style wooden surround and overmantel with broken pediment and shell completes the room. Divided front ground floor rooms retain enriched doorcases and cornices, the left room's cornice featuring musical motifs. At the rear, a tiled hallway contains a queen post truss roof, and a cellar features two brick arches carried on a Doric column.