Ansty Hall

ANSTY HALL

Country house dated 1678, with a third storey and one-bay wings added in 1800, and a mid to late 19th-century wing to the rear. Built for Edward Taylor and later altered for the Adams family.

The building is constructed in brick with limestone dressings and moulded cornice. The slate roofs are shallow hipped with deep eaves; the large rendered ridge stacks have moulded cornices. The plan is organised around a central staircase and employs Carolean style. The house is three storeys tall with a 1:2:3:2:1 bay arrangement.

The symmetrical entrance front features a slightly projecting pedimented centre. It has a moulded stone plinth with rusticated alternating quoins at the centre and angles, and stone string courses. The central entrance comprises a flush 6-panelled door and overlight with decorative glazing in a moulded stone architrave, surrounded by a doorcase of panelled pilasters, consoles and breakfront entablature. The entablature includes a moulded shaped datestone and paterae with an open pediment above. The sashes have moulded eared architraves. Ground floor windows have pulvinated friezes abutting the string course, while first floor windows have brick aprons. The second floor features 6-pane sashes in moulded architraves. The wings are set back with separate roofs and one-storey quadrant projections to the front, which have stone-coped brick parapets and sashes with brick flat arches. The left wing has a blocked first-floor window.

The garden front to the rear has a 2:3:2-bay main range with similar details to the entrance front, though the additions are plain, without quoins or dressings. The central door has a moulded architrave with pulvinated frieze, and immediately above is a staircase window with a brick panel over. The third and fifth bays have shorter windows with aprons to the ground floor. The sixth and seventh bays have 15-pane sashes to the ground floor, lengthened around 1800. The second floor has 6-pane sashes to the third and fifth bays and between the first and second and sixth and seventh bays. The wings are set back slightly with a first-floor string course at a different level to the main range. The left wing's first floor has two windows of differing sizes. The additions have sashes with rusticated stone flat arches and keystones throughout. An irregular wing at right angles on the left has a plain-tile roof.

The interior features a panelled entrance hall with a large bolection-moulded stone fireplace and a diagonally-set stone-flagged floor. Double-leaf moulded 6-panelled doors open to the drawing room on the left and the dining room on the right. A screen to the staircase has a central moulded basket arch of around 1800, with bolection-moulded openings and panelled reveals to left and right.

The drawing room has bolection panelling and a strongly moulded cornice with full-height pilaster panels flanking a mid-19th-century grey marble fireplace with shells carved in relief to its angles. A wide opening leads to a quadrant addition of around 1800, panelled in a similar style.

The dining room was remodelled around 1800 and features an Ionic screen of two columns and half-antae with egg-and-dart and anthemion cornice. A painted wood fireplace has fluted pilasters with jewel work and blind fret frieze.

The open well staircase of 1678 has an openwork scroll balustrade with heavy moulded handrail and panelled newels with large moulded square finials and drops. Bolection-panelled dado runs throughout.

The library to the left has double-leaf 6-panelled doors, bolection panelling, and an overmantel. A mid-19th-century grey marble fireplace has corner roundels.

The landing has bolection doorcases, paired to left and right with panelled reveals, mostly fitted with moulded 6-panelled doors. A central room has an early 19th-century painted wood fireplace with fluted Ionic half-columns. The room to the left has bolection-panelled dado and a 3-panelled door to a dressing room, with a simple moulded fireplace. The room to the right has some bolection panelling with a fireplace featuring a moulded eared architrave, stepped up in the centre to the cornice, and a 2-panel door to a 17th-century back staircase with large turned balusters. Another secondary staircase has turned balusters.

A room on the right to the rear has bolection-panelled dado with narrow panels flanking a moulded fireplace, and a moulded panelled overmantel with narrow flanking panels. An early 19th-century recess features a wide basket arch and built-in cupboards. A room on the left has panelled dado.