Dunwood Hall, Entrance Steps And Urns

LONGSDON C.P. A53 SJ 95 SW 11/124 Dunwood Hall, - entrance steps and urns

GV II

House. Dated 1871 by Robert Scrivener for Thomas Hulme, a local potter. Rock-faced stone with smooth yellow sandstone dressings and quoins; slate roof; cast iron decorative ridges; verge parapets; cast iron guttering in imitation of decorated eaves band; side stack to front and end stack to right. High Gothic in style and roughly 'L'-shaped in form with a radial plan extending from a central hall. 2 storeys and attic, with 3-storey entrance tower to right of centre, dividing frontage into 2 parts. Slightly higher eaves to left portion which is itself divided in centre by projecting side stack; single range of windows tucked between stack and tower; gabled 2-light 'Y'-tracery half-dormer over 2 stone chamfered mullion and transom windows. Slightly projecting tower porch with French-style, truncated and crested hipped roof; heavily moulded cornice with gargoyles at angles over quatrefoil medallioned frieze; raised strings at floor levels; 3 central grouped, pointed narrow lights to top stage over stone mullioned and transomed 3-sided oriel on heavily moulded base, flanked by 2 shields on the left with low-relief Hulme coat-of-arms to right inscribed "TH/1871"; steeply pointed 4-centred arched doorpiece with label and hood, moulded intrados, inner and outer shafts with foliaged capitals, half-glazed door with cast iron decoration behind glazing, trefoil-headed side-lights and overlight with trefoils and quatrefoil in tympanum; fleur-de-lys finial; large egg-cup shaped grotesque, heavily carved urns flank entrance steps; set back right-hand portion of house with single-light pointed-arch window to left of first floor against tower; single range of windows offset to right; gabled 2-light dormer window with pointed relieving arch and inset cinquefoil in tympanum over 2 chamfer mullion and transom 3-light windows. Interior: entrance leads through vestibule to inner glazed entrance screen of central hall, extensively toplit; first floor gallery with cast iron balustrading; Minton, patterned encaustic tile floor; columnated granite and stone fireplace; heavy, turned-baluster staircase offset beyond hall to south. Elaborate fleuron cornices to rooms to south of hall.

Listing NGR: SJ9467954442