Gledhow Hall

Gledhow Hall

Mansion, now converted into flats. The house was completed shortly after 1766 and designed by John Carr for John Beckett. It was subsequently altered and extended for James Kitson, Lord Airedale between approximately 1885 and 1890 by the architects Chorley and Connon.

The building is constructed in ashlar with hipped slate and lead roofs. It features a tall corniced stack to the ridge between bays 1 and 2, to the left end, and rear of the ridge left and right. A balustered parapet, cornices, and chamfered quoins complete the external detail. The house rises two storeys over cellars.

The west front displays two two-storey canted bays with three windows between them, all sashes without glazing bars set in moulded architraves. The central feature comprises paired glazed doors with an overlight, a Gibbs surround and pediment, approached by four stone steps with nosed treads.

The rear elevation is primarily late 19th-century work, with three bays containing 3, 4, and 3 windows respectively. The outer bays project forward. The entrance occupies the left bay, featuring two pairs of decorated Ionic columns in antis forming a loggia with white marble paving. The central bay contains four-pane sashes with a bay window to the left; the right bay has paired and single sashes. A service block is recessed to the right.

The left return incorporates a large 19th-century service block projecting on the left side. The main house features a corner entrance porch with Tuscan columns and a glazed door with overlight. Above this is a finely detailed first-floor oriel window with acanthus, egg-and-dart, and fluted decoration below paired windows with modern frames and a cornice. To the left are paired segmental-arched bathroom and toilet windows, while to the right stands an external stack with stepped corniced stages and tall flue.

The interior is entered through the rear loggia via a recessed doorway with architrave and shallow triangular pediment bearing a carved winged cherub holding a shield inscribed 'SALVE'. Paired half-glazed panelled doors feature fine stained glass with fruit and butterfly motifs, now damaged. The entrance hall contains a mosaic floor with scrolled pattern in black and brown. Doorways have architraves; the hallway retains panelled dado and mouldings, though later partitions have been introduced for the flat conversion.

Stone cantilevered stairs with wrought-iron scrolled balustrade and mahogany handrail rise through a partitioned top-lit stair well. The stairwell retains eight fine lunette windows, each with stained glass representing foliage, flowers and fruit framing a central coloured panel of translucent stone or stained glass, with painted glass borders featuring ferns and scrolls.

On the first floor, north-west side, lies a very fine tiled bathroom of circa 1885, designed by Chorley and Connon for Mr Kitson. Two panelled mahogany doors provide access, one serving a shallow cupboard topped with a carved walnut segmental panel. The walls feature moulded tiles in brown, blue and white with a dado and moulded rail. Arcaded walls have imposts with scrolls and masks, moulded cornice, scrolled frieze, and dentilled cornice. The ceiling is tiled in strapwork design incorporating three diamond-shaped vents. The fireplace in the east wall is bolection moulded with scrolls and swags below a dentilled pediment. Adjacent to the bathroom, the toilet is similarly decorated with tiled walls and windows containing fine stained glass with bird motifs.

Ground-floor rooms were not examined but are reputed to retain fine interior fittings from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Lord Airedale (1835-1911) was the second son of James Kitson (1807-85), founder of the famous Kitson Airedale locomotive foundries. An industrial magnate and notable figure in the Liberal party locally and nationally, he was created baronet in 1887.