Honington Hall And Attached Gateways, Walls And Temple

Honington Hall and Attached Gateways, Walls and Temple

A country house built for Sir Henry Parker around 1685, with significant later alterations and additions carried out for Joseph Townsend between 1730 and 1740.

The East Front

The principal front is constructed of red brick with rusticated limestone quoins, topped by a hipped slate roof with ball finials. Brick ridge, end and lateral chimney stacks have moulded stone tops. The house is two storeys plus attics, arranged in a seven-window range with a 2:3:2 bay pattern. A central entrance block with slightly advanced side wings dominates the composition. The entrance itself features a moulded wood doorcase with Corinthian columns, a broken segmental pediment with swags, and a cartouche bearing the arms of the Townsend family above a glazed door. Six sash windows on the ground floor have glazing bars, stone cased surrounds, keystoned heads and cornices. Above these windows are round-headed niches containing busts of Roman emperors. Seven sash windows on the first floor have stone cased surrounds, glazing bars and limestone heads. Four roof dormers punctuate the attic storey. A bracketed wooden eaves cornice runs along the line of the roof.

Attached to the left and right of the main block are rusticated and pedimented limestone gateways of 1744, each fitted with wrought-iron overthrows and gates. Attached to the right gateway is a brick quadrant wall with pilasters, blank niches and a triglyph frieze.

Other Elevations

The North Front displays a six-window range. An entrance to the left is fitted with a moulded wood surround and an apsed hood carved with cherubs' heads, flowers and leaves. The South Front features a loggia and steps added around 1744 for Joseph Townsend. The West Front has a wide canted bay serving the octagonal saloon, added around 1745.

The Temple

A small detached limestone structure with a portico of six Tuscan columns and a triglyph frieze decorated with rams' heads.

Interior

The house follows a double-pile plan with a central entrance hall at its core. The side wings contain, to the north, the Dining Room and the Magistrate's Room (now kitchens), and to the south, the Oak Room or Drawing Room with a Boudoir behind it.

Projecting from the main west front is a domed octagonal Saloon of around 1745. The space between the Saloon and the Hall has been converted into a lobby with north and south two-bay colonnades, dividing it from the side chambers. The south-side chamber contains an open-well staircase of around 1745 with open ironwork balustrades. A 17th-century dog-leg staircase with turned balusters survives in the north-side chamber.

Most interior decoration dates from the 1740s, including ornamental plasterwork attributed to Charles Stanley. The Hall features a stone and marble fireplace with a plaster relief overmantle depicting Venus appearing to Aeneus, and a relief on the south wall showing Hector saying Farewell to Andromache. Doors are fitted with entablatures carved with amorini, and the ceiling displays ornate plasterwork.

The Oak Room is lined with bolection-moulded panelling and contains a pedimented doorcase with amorini, possibly dating to the 1750s, and a fireplace of around 1745. The Boudoir has a fine plaster ceiling relief of Flora. The Saloon is lavishly decorated with a coffered dome containing a painting attributed to Ballucci, Rococo garlands sweeping down the angles of the walls, and classically-styled fireplaces and doorcases in the Kentian manner. The lobby to the rear of the Hall is sumptuously decorated with Rococo ceiling motifs and thick garlands in the spandrels.

On the first floor, a Chinese Closet retains rare painted leather wall panels, a small late 17th-century corner fireplace and a plaster ceiling cornice.

The house is noted as a gem of late 17th-century architecture and design.