Kirklees Hall Mansion And Attached Stables

Kirklees Hall is a large stone-built mansion of complex development, originally constructed in the mid-16th century and progressively enlarged through the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was substantially altered around 1770 by the architect John Carr, and its service wing was heightened in 1903. An attached stable block of early 17th-century date forms part of the complex.

The south facade is deeply indented, probably dating between 1544 and 1565, with alterations made before the mid-17th century. A vestibule inserted by Carr, probably following the lines of an infill of 1705 (indicated by a surviving rainwater head), sits between the main house and right-hand range. The south gable wall of the west wing carries a large stack of four coupled diamond-set flues with offsets. The gable is deeply coped at a steeper pitch than the present roof line. The building is of two storeys in this section. Two cross-windows light the first floor of the gable. The wall facing inwards displays a double-chamfered mullioned and transomed window of 15 lights, with a similar 8-light window above on the first floor; both have cavetto-moulded mullions. The first floor also contains a small 2-light mullioned window and a single sashed window. The vestibule partly obscures another mullioned and transomed window, formerly of 18 lights but now with a doorway broken into it, leaving 3 lights carried over the lintel. The vestibule is faced in ashlar and features 3 semi-circular arches with a central doorway. Mid-19th-century rusticated open balustrading marks the first floor set-back, which has 3 sash windows with modern glazing.

The vestibule overlaps a spiral staircase tower constructed at the junction of the east wing, rising above it to form an octagon. Within the octagonal section are double-chamfered mullioned windows and a Tudor-arched doorway with a studded door leading onto the roof. The tower is capped by an octagonal hollow stone spire, surmounted by a ball finial carrying a weather-vane.

The east wing is a rectangular block of three storeys running east to west, with quoins and a drip course to each floor above the windows. It has a hipped slate roof. Small double-chamfered mullioned windows of 3 and 4 lights light the ground floor, with similar though altered windows to the second floor. The first floor has tall sashed windows.

The east front is principally of later 16th-century date in hammer-dressed stone and comprises three distinct elements. The first continues the storeys of the south facade but is sashed except for the second floor. The second, recessed to either side of a narrow projecting bay (possibly the original porch), has sashes under hoodmoulds and large lateral stacks. The third element, quoined before the present corner due to the added window bay of the north facade, is gabled with tripartite sash windows.

The north front is of early 17th-century date in finely dressed stone, completely refaced when it became the principal elevation. It is symmetrical in an E-shaped plan of seven bays and two storeys with a high scalloped parapet crowned by finials. A plinth and drip course run over the windows. The original large windows on the northern and inner faces of the bays have been replaced by smaller later windows. The porch has a round-headed doorway with fanlight; above it is a broken pediment from Carr's alterations. Each outer bay has tall single sashed windows of 15 panes to each floor.

To the rear of this range a courtyard was formed. A two-storey three-bay range runs south with finely dressed stonework. This has been extended, with a clear break discernible where the stonework becomes thin-coursed hammer-dressed. The western face has two 2-light small flat-faced mullioned windows. The return wall is faced in finely dressed stone with a coped gable, kneelers, finials and stack, and appears to have been the original gable-end taken down and rebuilt further east. The east front is in hammer-dressed stone with a 4-light flat-faced mullioned window, repeated above, of early 19th-century cottage type and entirely out of character; and a very fine late 16th-century doorway featuring a depressed Tudor arch, moulded spandrels, composite jambs with cyma-moulded surround, and good stops. The windows and doorway on this facade are likely re-used material.

A 19th-century single-storey range links the service wing to the coach-house and stables of 17th-century date. These form an L-shaped building with wings running north and east. The windows are double-chamfered. The principal south facade has two-and-a-half storeys arranged in three bays under three coped gables with kneelers and finials. A cross-window lights each bay and floor except the central bay, which has 2 cross-windows to the ground floor. The gables each have 2-light double-chamfered mullioned windows. A drip course continues around the building over the ground floor windows. The right-hand return wall has a coped gable with kneelers and finials, and an octagonal-faced clock set in the gable. A mullioned and transomed window of 8 lights with a 6-light window above, both with hoodmoulds of straight returns, are set here; the mullions are ovolo-moulded.

Interior features of significance include a large elliptical-arched Tudor fireplace, probably the oldest feature, in the south-west corner of the house. The entrance vestibule contains a segmental pointed-arched doorway to the left and a depressed Tudor-arched doorway to the right. A Neoclassical doorcase leads into the stair hall with an Imperial staircase set between Ionic columns in antis. The elaborate 'flying' stair, slung on iron girders and designed by Carr, was executed by Maurice Tobin for £249 15 shillings. The southern ground floor room of the east wing retains a heavy beamed ceiling and a mid-17th-century plaster overmantel bearing a coat of arms. A stone spiral staircase is preserved above the ground floor.

The north front ground floor is divided into two large rooms connected by a central tunnel-vaulted passage. Within the porch is a small groin vault with consoles. To the east of the passage lies the 'Oak Room', divided from it by an elaborate late Elizabethan oak screen of high quality. A central doorway with a 6-panelled 18th-century door is flanked by foliated carved colonnettes with Ionic capitals on a plinth; the entablature is decorated with lion masks. To either side are 3 panelled bays decorated with arcades containing geometrically inlaid panels, the centre with marquetry faces. An inlaid strapwork frieze runs across. The outer bays are likewise divided by colonnettes, all surmounted by carved figures of soldiers in Roman dress holding spears. The screen is topped by a blind gallery of flat balusters with a gadrooned rail, above which are 10 decorated open arcades broken by curved grotesque caryatids. The walls are entirely panelled in oak.

Above the 'Oak Room' is the 'Music Room', possibly designed by Lindley in 1777 and executed by Betram, completed in 1781. It features a fine gilded plaster ceiling with a central motif decorated with musical instruments and swirling vines set within an oval in shallow relief. The bay contains an original music bookcase.