Thorp Arch Hall Including East Wing And West Wing

Thorp Arch Hall, a large house now divided into three dwellings, was built between 1750 and 1754 by the architect John Carr for William Gossip of Skelton, near York. Gossip had initially sought designs from James Paine, but Paine was too occupied; Carr provided finished plans by 15th August 1749, and his account was settled in April 1756. The building is constructed of ashlar magnesian limestone with Welsh slate roofs.

The main house is a substantial two-storey-and-attic structure of five bays, planned on a double-pile layout, flanked by two-storey three-bay side wings set back and under separate roofs. The main front features a plinth and rusticated quoins, with nosed stone steps leading to a central glazed double door and three-pane overlight in a twentieth-century facsimile cast-concrete surround having architrave, pulvinated frieze and pediment on carved consoles. The other bays have a sill band interrupted by lowered windows with unequally-hung 21-pane sashes in twentieth-century facsimile architraved surrounds with pulvinated friezes and cornices. The first floor has projecting sills and renewed architraves to sashes with glazing bars. An eaves cornice runs beneath the hipped roof, which has ashlar end stacks and two skylight windows.

The west wing on the left features large quoins and contains sashes with glazing bars beneath nine-pane casements, all having flush sills and deep lintels. An eaves band runs beneath the pyramidal roof with an end stack on the left. A one-storey addition on the left side has a part-glazed door on its right, beside a blind two-light mullioned window.

The east wing on the right is similar in design; to its right is a screen wall with a round-arched doorway.

The rear of the main house is accessed by steps to a central six-panel door with fanlight, flanked by eight-pane sashes in Venetian style. The first floor has a tripartite window; otherwise sashes with glazing bars are used. The wings each contain a blocked segmental archway, now with later windows and doors beneath.

The interior contains a transverse hall with a different wooden staircase at each end, featuring turned balusters, column newels and wreathed and ramped handrails. Hall doorways have plain architraves beneath renewed friezes and cornices.

The ground-floor room to the front right contains enriched six-panel doors with acorn friezes and carved cornices, enriched skirting and a dado rail. The wooden fireplace features shell and acanthus motifs on the frieze, with an overmantel having shouldered and eared architrave. Plaster wall panels and ceiling with dentilled cornice are present, decorated with floral ceiling motifs in Rococo style.

The rear-right room is plainer in treatment, with a panelled dado and a wooden fireplace having side scrolls and a floral panel on the carved frieze. The overmantel carries Greek fret ornament, drops and a broken pediment, beneath a modillioned ceiling cornice.

The front-left room has a doorcase with carved architrave and planted carvings on the frieze, and a resited wooden fire surround.

The rear lobby contains a round-arched display cabinet with eared architrave. The doorway into the hall has an eared architrave, pulvinated frieze and cornice.

On the first floor, landing doorcases have architraves, pulvinated friezes and cornices. Half-round stair windows are present at each end; that to the right returns with old glazing bars and glass. A panelled plaster ceiling extends across the landing. Contemporary fire surrounds are present in rooms on the right.

Building records from the Thorp Arch estate papers, held at Leeds City Archives, show that Gossip intended to construct "a house of five windows and four rooms on a floor with the offices and stables in the wings". The lengthy documentary record tracks construction from 1750 until completion in 1754, including Day Book entries from 1749–1751 noting visits to Thorp Arch by Mr. Carr.