Stanton Hall

Stanton Hall

Stanton Hall is a late 18th-century house built on land owned by the Earls Stanhope, substantially extended during the 19th and early 20th centuries, with further alterations and extensions added in the late 20th and early 21st centuries for use as a care home.

The house is constructed from burnt red and orange brick laid in Flemish bond, with ashlar dressings and slate roof coverings. Windows are predominantly single pane sashes.

The building has an irregular plan composed of a roughly square late 18th-century core, with a conservatory and former billiard room extending to the north and north-east, and a series of three, two and single-storey extensions to the south-west.

The late 18th-century core is of three bays and three storeys with a basement, topped by a pitched, valleyed roof. Windows and doors to this part have rusticated stone lintels with prominent keystones. The principal elevation faces north and is topped by a heavy stone cornice, flanked by jowled pilasters. The first and second floors are separated by a string course. The central door and flanking French doors at ground floor level have been internalised within a single-storey, lean-to conservatory on a brick plinth across the front of the building. Above the brick plinth, each glazed panel is divided into seven panes. The projecting central entrance bay is approached by a short flight of stone steps with a ramped brick balustrade. Above a pair of entrance doors is a glazed pediment featuring decorative wrought ironwork. The conservatory links with a single-storey brick extension to the west, which features a pitched roof behind a parapet. The north elevation features two windows with rusticated lintels. To the west is a truncated end stack and to the south is a single storey canted bay window.

The east side of the late 18th-century building features an oversailing crenelated parapet with a dog-toothed eaves course, interrupted by a coped attic gable. Below this is a mid-19th-century two-storey bay window, featuring a dog-toothed string course between pairs of sashes to the first floor and French windows below. To the right of the bay window are two further sashes. The west side features a parapet to match that of the east side, punctuated by a truncated stack. To the centre is a long, stained glass stair window with arched head. To the right of this, a two storey bay window echoes that to the east side but with segmental arched sashes.

The adjoining mid-to-late 19th-century ranges to the south are set over two and three storeys and both have hipped roofs. On the east side of the three-storey range is a ground floor bay window with French windows with top lights, chamfered corners and stone mullions. South of this, a recessed bay links to a two-storey, early 20th-century range with a crenelated parapet. The east side of both the 19th-century and early 20th-century ranges feature rusticated quoins, plain ashlar lintels, dog tooth string courses between each floor, and a dentil course to the eaves. These details are also carried over to the adjoining late 20th-century single-storey range. There is a three storey lift tower dating to the 1980s on the west side of the building. Windows to the west elevation predominantly have segmental brick heads.

Interior

The main entrance leads into the conservatory, which has a floor inlaid with decorative ceramic tiles. The glazed roof is supported by two cast iron posts set on plinths with scalloped surrounds. These support ornamental cast iron brackets, which are also present between each of the glazed window bays. The conservatory links with the former billiard room, which features decorative trusses with arch detailing. The conservatory leads through to an interior hall containing a corniced ceiling divided by moulded beams, some of which are panelled. A timber staircase with half-landing, of possible late 19th-century date, features carved newel posts and splat balusters supporting a handrail above a half-panelled banister.

The hallway leads to a series of principal rooms on the east side of the house, each with a doorway to the next, including one with a pilastered surround with ionic scrolled capitals. Elsewhere on the ground floor the window and door surrounds feature moulded architraves and panelled surrounds. There are ornate ceiling roses to the principal spaces. The southernmost of the three principal east rooms has a textured hexagonal ceiling finish and a notched dado rail. This room features a bay window with stained glass top lights. Chimney pieces have been removed throughout, though a detached surround with a deep cornice and geometric carving survives to the ground floor. Within the corridor south of the main hallway a winder staircase with turned newel posts and plain balusters ascends to the first and second floors.

The ground and first floor corridors feature arched thresholds, including an entryway with a stained-glass top light. There are deep door architraves and encased ceiling beams with cornices to the north first-floor rooms. Many of the first-floor rooms feature moulded joinery, including cornicing and picture rails. The southernmost room in the early 20th-century range has decorative plasterwork to the ceiling and above the picture rail. A fireplace survives to the room next to this. There is evidence of partition walls and other adaptations during the late 20th century.