Harrowby Hall

Harrowby Hall is a small country house, now divided into two residences, dating from 1628 with significant additions and alterations in the 18th century, and minor changes in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, topped with a partially hipped collyweston slate roof, featuring two coped gables with ball finials and three ridge stacks plus a single wall stack. The layout is in the shape of a Latin cross. It is two storeys high with attics over a partial basement.

The main north-west front has a central, gabled two-bay projection featuring four glazing-bar sashes and a smaller central sash in the gable above. A 20th-century porch and a single glazing-bar sash to the first floor are set into the north side of this projection. To the west is a single bay with two 2-light mullion basement windows and two glazing-bar sashes above. The irregularly fenestrated two bays to the north feature two more mullioned basement windows, two 3-light ovolo mullioned windows, and a similar single-light window. The single-bay gabled south-west cross wing has two glazing-bar sashes and a single smaller sash above. The single-bay north-east crossing has a single 20th-century glazing-bar sash on the ground floor. All sashes have plain stone surrounds with small keystones.

The south-west front of the rear wing has an off-centre glazed 20th-century door beneath a wooden lintel. To the south is a curved projection housing a bake oven. There are two 3-light ovolo mullion casements on the ground floor, with four irregularly placed ovolo mullions above, the central pair being 2-light and the outer ones 3-light. The rear facade of the south-west wing is blank. The north-west front of the rear wing has three bays with a central 19th-century door, set within a stone surround with a slight four-centred head, flanked by single 3-light ovolo mullion casements. Above are three similar casements: one 2-light and two 3-light. The rear two-bay facade of the south-west wing features a projecting 19th-century porch with a 2-light ovolo mullion casement to the left; above are two ovolo mullion casements, one 2-light and the other 3-light.

The window reveal over the door on the north-east front is inscribed in Lombardic script with the date “1628” and “WI AHHBBYARD, WG OF HARBY,AK”. The dog-leg staircase inserted within the screens passage has balusters characteristic of the mid-17th century. A ground-floor room in the cross wing features a small 17th-century stone fireplace. The projecting wing of the north-west front contains a ground-floor room with a decorative plastered ceiling, a richly moulded cornice, and plastered fielded panels to the walls. The mirror above the fireplace has an elaborate surround featuring guilloche, bead and reel, egg and dart mouldings. The room above has a fine plastered ceiling with oak leaf and acorn relief designs, a mirror, cornice and plastered fielded panels. It also has a contemporary 16th-century marble fireplace.