Walton Hall

SE31NE 3/49 11.4.73

WALTON WALTON PARK Walton Hall

GV II*

Country house, now hotel, c1768 (Pevsner p536). Ashlar, stone slate roof. 3 storeys with basement. Classical style. Double-pile. 8-bay symmetrical facade. Plinth. Facade divided 2-1-2-1-2 by giant channelled pilaster strips with the centre 4 capped by shallow pediment. Central doorway set between the 4th and 5th bays has elaborate double doors with architrave and carved on lintel a relief sculpture of an otter with a trout in its mouth (the Waterton crest). Early C19 3-bay Tuscan single-storey porch in front of the 2 centre bays. 2-pane sash windows with raised surrounds, eared to ground- and 1st-floor windows. Cornice and blocking course. Tympanum of pediment has carved achievement of arms with motto "BETTER KYNDE FREMB THAN FREMB KYEN" (the Waterton family). Hipped roof with one ridge stack between 5th and 6th bays. Rear: U-shaped with 2-bay projecting wings. 6 bays. Central gabled porch set between tall round-headed stair windows. Left wing obscured by modern extension. Right wing has Tuscan porch and doorway with architrave to left of Venetian window with plain sash windows above. 2 stacks to ridge, 2 to left wing, one to right wing. Left-hand return of 5 bays. 2 bays nearest front have some windows as front, other bays have plain raised surrounds. Right-hand return has single-storey outshut slightly set back with quoin pilaster strip: basement at lake level has 3 segmental-arched boat entrances (now windows) 9 bays of sash windows. Hipped roof.

Interior: oak-panelled entrance hall probably reused from earlier house on the site with elaborate Jacobean carved oak overmantel. Stairhall has C19 cantilevered 3-storey open-well staircase with turned balusters. Landings at each floor level have original doorways with architraves, fluted friezes, dentil cornice and 6-panel doors with raised-and-fielded panels. The stairwindow has wooden fluted surround with imposts and rusticated stone voussoirs, the keystone carved with the Waterton crest in relief. The outshut has 5-bay fish-bone king-post roof with hip and windlass formerly for lifting goods from basement. Spectacularly sited on an island.

The C19 home of the famous explorer Charles Waterton who created perhaps the earliest bird sanctuary in Britain on the island.

Listing NGR: SE3638416263