Thoresby Hall And Adjoining Outbuildings, Gate And Railings

Thoresby Hall and Adjoining Outbuildings, Gate and Railings

A large country house built between 1864 and 1871 by A. Salvin with details by O. Salvin for the third Earl Manvers. The house is designed in Elizabeth revival style with irregular facades, constructed in rockfaced ashlar with ashlar dressings. Slate roofs are laid with some featuring decorative iron cresting. The building displays a chamfered plinth, first floor band, string course and moulded cornice. Panelled parapets are decorated with pierced work and strapwork. Quoins have chamfered rustication. The house comprises 4 and 5 storeys with attics, measuring 9 bays wide by 8 bays deep, and is arranged on a square plan with a central courtyard. It contains 2 gable stacks, 2 side wall stacks, 6 ridge stacks and 9 corner stacks.

The balanced principal facades feature prominent central features and corner towers of varying designs. Windows throughout are cross and mullioned casements. The main east front has a central 3-storey projecting porch with a porte-cochere. Above this sits a 2-stage bell tower with cupola. The porte-cochere has 3 round-headed keystoned openings. To the left of the porch are 3 casements and a door with overlight; to the right are 2 casements. Further left are 4 casements. Above the porch is an elaborate paired casement with domed flanking pilasters. To the left are 5 casements and to the right 4 casements on each floor. Return angles each have a single casement on each floor. Above again, the porch features a 2-storey canted oriel window. Attics contain 4 gabled dormers. The tower has a cornice with 4 urns. Above is the clock stage with triple corner pilasters and rosette decoration; the clock face is to the east. A domed octagonal cupola above has fluted scroll brackets and round-headed openings.

The corner tower to the left has shallow clasping buttresses topped with square domed cupolas with round-headed openings and 4 shouldered gables with obelisk finials. To the east is a parapeted square bay window with casement. Above are 2 floors each with a single casement, followed by a paired casement and a single casement in a gable. The tower to the right has 5 stages, with a casement on each floor to the east. The arcaded top stage has round-headed openings.

The south front features 3 different 2-storey bay windows, each with 3 or 4 casements. A central scrolled shaped gable is flanked to the left by a parapeted square tower and to the right by a tower with corner cupolas. A central pedimented doorcase is flanked to the left by 3 casements and to the right by 2 casements on each floor. Above are 3 pedimented gabled dormers to the left and 2 to the right.

The west front has square parapeted flanking towers. The tower to the right contains a 3-storey gabled bay window. To the left is a single-storey parapeted pavilion of 3 bays, with a pedimented door to the west flanked by 2 casements to the right. An angled linking corridor to the right has a casement. Beyond this, a corner block has 3 casements. Further right is a canted balustraded corner bay window, followed by a pedimented doorcase flanked by single casements. Beyond this are 2 casements and a bay window with 3 casements. Above are 11 casements. Above again are 4 gabled cross-eaves dormers, flanked to the left by 3 casements and to the right by a single casement. Above is a gabled dormer to the left.

A cross-gabled main staircase tower of 6 storeys has a balustrade and 4 side wall stacks. On each side are a pair of casements with strapwork lintel. Shaped gables each have a pair of flanking stacks and a central stepped casement.

The central courtyard has to the east 4 floors with casements and above, 3 gabled dormers. The south side has a central canted parapeted 3-storey bay window with 3 casements on each floor, flanked by 2 and 3 casements. Above is a projecting bay flanked to the left by 3 casements with aprons and to the right by 3 casements with bracketed sills. The west side, 4 storeys tall, has 7 casements and above, 3 floors each with 6 casements of various sizes. Rainwater heads are dated 1891 and 1893 and initialled 'M'. The north side is single storey with attics, having to the left 2 casements and to the right a 20th-century French window. Above are 4 round-headed shouldered dormers.

Adjoining the main hall to the north are service wings comprising 2 staggered parallel single-storey ranges with a cross-gabled transverse range of 2 storeys plus attics. These ranges are 12 bays long and follow a simplified version of the Hall's style with similar detail. Rainwater heads are dated 1866. The transverse range of 6 bays has round-headed archways at each end, a first-floor Tudor-arched linking bridge to the north, scrolled gabled dormers and a paired central stack containing a bellcote. A rockfaced ashlar retaining wall to the north has openings with segmental heads. A similar boundary wall to the east has pilasters and a parapet.

The Hall interior contains a Great Hall with moulded string course and hammer-beam roof with carved corbels and drops. To the south is a bracketed ashlar fireplace, probably by Fisher and Dyson, with a crest containing the Arms, coronet and supporters. A panelled dado runs around the space. Classical doorcases with scroll brackets and pediments are positioned above 4 moulded round-headed openings to the gallery. The east end has a screens passage with 3 round-headed openings. Above are 3 triple openings with granite shafts and above again a 3-bay arcade with shell niches in the piers and pierced balustrade. The west end has a central round-headed arch flanked by single shell-headed niches, with single round-headed recesses beyond. Above are 2 round-headed openings with elaborate corbelled balconies and above again 3 small round-headed openings.

The principal Imperial staircase has half-landings and elaborate scrolled foliate cast-iron balusters. The stairwell features shell-headed niches and a domed ceiling. The front entrance hall has a segmental-headed opening to a dogleg staircase with landings.

The drawing room is decorated in Second Empire style with a deep frieze and elaborate coffered ceiling. It retains original silk wall covering and has 2 marble fireplaces with angled figure brackets and overmantel mirrors with gilt frames. The library has fitted bookcases with 19th-century lamps, a foliate frieze and coffered ceiling. It contains a large carved oak Classical fireplace with carved figures and relief panel by Gerrard Robinson. The ante room has a marble Classical fireplace with herms and an overmantel mirror, plus 5 painted wood panels. The dining room has a Classical marble fireplace attributed to John Carr, featuring Ionic columns, a frieze with relief panel and a dice with urns. Main bedrooms have coffered ceilings and 2 Classical marble fireplaces with overmantels, reputedly from the John Carr house.

Outside, the front entrance court is flanked by rockfaced ashlar retaining walls with pilasters, parapets and urns. Keystoned openings are evident. To the east is a dwarf boundary wall of curved plan carrying elaborate wrought-iron railing. A pair of central crested wrought-iron piers with lamp brackets and a pair of wrought-iron gates mark the main entrance.

Historical context: Thoresby Park was enclosed by William Pierrepont, fourth Earl of Kingston, in 1783. An existing early 17th-century house was remodelled, probably by Benjamin Jackson, in 1685-87, and burnt down in 1745. A second house by John Carr was built in 1767-71. This was demolished around 1865, when the present house was constructed on a site approximately 400 metres to the north.