Elton Hall

Elton Hall is a country house of complex evolution spanning from the late 15th century to the 19th century. The building incorporates late 15th-century remains of a chapel and gatehouse built by Sir Richard or Sir John Sapcote, formerly part of an original courtyard house.

The main rebuilding occurred between 1662 and 1689 under Sir Thomas Proby, with Thomas Cook and Christopher Chapman serving as carpenter and mason. This work included a chapel in the north-east wing with a wing at right angles to the north-west. A further extension to the south-west was added by John Proby (died 1710). Extensive alterations and rebuilding between 1780 and 1815 by the first Earl of Carysfort introduced romantic Gothic styling, with mason John Canon contributing two round towers. Some of this Gothic character survives on the south-east elevation.

Around 1855, the third Earl of Carysfort worked with architect Henry Ashton to remove Gothic details and demolish some former additions. The north-west cross wing was rebuilt and the north-west wing refaced in stone, with the main entrance restored to the north-east facade as an open portico. Around 1860, the chapel range was extended to the north-west and the bay between the chapel and gatehouse was rebuilt. The fourth Earl of Carysfort (1868–1872) added a tower to the chapel block and constructed a billiard room and kitchens to the north-east. The fifth Earl of Carysfort in 1882 demolished the 18th-century tower and built two octagonal turrets flanking the rebuilt gable of the 17th-century range. After a fire in 1894, architect Birch oversaw restoration of the upper storey of Sapcote's tower.

The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble, freestone and ashlar with Collyweston slate roofs. It is two to three storeys with attics and cellars, displaying a former irregular T-plan that has been compounded by additions to the main north-east and south-west ranges, with the former chapel and gatehouse incorporated into the north-east range.

The main entrance facade to the former 17th-century wing was designed by Henry Ashton. It features a portico with paired stone columns, entablature and balustraded parapet, double-leafed glazed doors and rectangular fanlight. To the right is a six-panelled door with a cornice hood supported on console brackets. The facade comprises six bays and three bays to the right, with nine first-floor and eight ground-floor hung sash windows with moulded stone architraves. Dormer windows feature alternate triangular and segmental pediments in wood and stone, with a large central facade dormer to the cross wing. A moulded stone cornice with dentil enrichment and plain band separates the floors. Narrow rectangular chimney stacks of rusticated ashlar are recessed with plain panels and moulded cornices.

The south-east garden facade presents four unified elements incorporating Gothic features and late 19th-century alterations. From left to right, these comprise a pair of round embattled towers to the south-west gable; three bays with a central pedimented bay between pairs of slender pinnacled buttresses, featuring a central embattled first-floor oriel window; a chapel range of three bays with a two-storey bay at first floor accessed by semi-circular stone steps, containing Gothic two-centred arch-headed windows with hung sashes shaped to the arches and slender glazing bars with moulded stone reveals and diagonal buttresses terminating in panelled and crocketed pinnacles; a library building of one bay with a two-storey bay and a resited 17th-century stone mullioned and transomed casement window at first floor, said to have originated from Drydens' House, Chesterton, Cambridgeshire; and a gatehouse of three storeys with a projecting bay, ashlar-faced clasping buttresses, heavy machicolation with embattled parapet rising to turret-like projections. The outer archway has a four-centred head with grooves for a portcullis. The first-floor window comprises two four-centred lights in a square head with moulded label and a panel above bearing the arms of the Sapcotes. Two blocked flanking window loops are visible, along with one second-floor window matching the first-floor design.

The interior contains an entrance hall with 17th-century Dutch oak panelling installed from Ireland in 1924, said to have originated from the Old Town Hall, Antwerp. The inner hall and staircase hall date from the mid-19th century by Ashton in 18th-century revival style, featuring scagliola columns and a very fine wrought iron balustraded staircase. Octagonal rooms from the 18th century survive. The chapel, formerly the medieval undercroft, features quadripartite ribbed vaulting of four bays. The former chapel was altered around 1760 into the drawing room and redecorated around 1860 in French mid-18th-century style while retaining the original 18th-century plastered ceiling. The dining room contains an 18th-century chimney piece removed from the drawing room. A late 18th-century main library retains its fittings and 19th-century stencil decoration, with a 19th-century inner library adjoining it. The chimney pieces of around 1815 were made of stone from the first Earl's quarries at Eligah by mason Marlow.