Elton Hall

ELTON CP ELTON

SO 47 SE 4/31 11.6.59

Elton Hall

GV II

House. Cl7 or earlier origins, partly rebuilt and refronted mid-C18; restored late C20. Part finely jointed handmade brick, part rubble; partly hipped plain tiled roofs with two brick ridge stacks and large brick end stacks with offsets. Two storeys, cellar and attic with dormers; moulded timber eaves cornice to front elevation. Six bays; there is a gable above the central two bays; windows on main floors all have ogee-arched 12-pane sashes beneath cambered heads. There are four C20 gabled dormers with 2-light casements and a C20 circular window within the central gable. The central entrance is flanked by narrow 8-pane sashes similarly detailed to the main windows. It has an open pediment, pilasters, panelled reveals and soffit, a door with six raised and fielded panels and a barred segmental fanlight. At the rear of the main front range are three brick wings and a substantial rubble north-east wing possibly of Cl7 origin and linked to the stables (qv) by a C20 single-storey addition. Interior: there is an open well staircase with turned balusters and moulded and wreathed handrail to the rear of the main block and also a small section of C18 panelling in the entrance hall. There are recorded to be some Cl7 or possibly medieval timbers surviving in the main building and the north-east wing. The house formerly belonged to Andrew Knight, brother of Richard Payne Knight, who built Downton Castle (qv) nearby. Andrew Knight was a founder and, for 27 years, president of the Horticultural Society and he experimented in raising new varieties of fruit at Elton. In 1809 he left Elton to live at Downton Castle. (Country Life,XLii, 60, p 36-42; RCHM Herefs, Vol III, p 57; BoE, p 127-8).

Listing NGR: SO4579671044