Parndon Hall

Parndon Hall is an Italianate red brick mansion with Portland stone dressings, built in 1867 for the Reverend Joseph Arkwright, grandson of the inventor. The house has two tall storeys, a stone plinth, a plat band string course with modillion brackets supporting the flat eaves of a hipped slate roof, and tall brick stacks with stone bands and bracketed cornice caps.

The main front has three bays, with a recessed centre. It features tripartite stone pilastered windows, with round-headed lights to the centre of the first floor framed by archivolts and keystones. A projecting stone entrance loggia has a pilastered, glazed three-bay arcade, a central double door, and a balustraded parapet. A lower, two-storey service wing is set back, with a returned plat band.

The interior’s key feature is the staircase hall, which rises through two storeys. It contains a massive oak staircase with turned balusters and finialed newels. The ceiling above the staircase has a brightly coloured decorative scheme painted on canvas by Elizabeth Arkwright. This ceiling displays four panels depicting the Four Seasons as thinly draped and garlanded nudes, a Bacchanalia of nude figures including a banquet scene, and a frieze of figures in 18th-century hunting costume, seemingly portraits of Arkwright family members.

On the ground floor, the former ballroom is located on the west side of the entrance hall, and retains some original mirrored panelling above the dado. The ballroom ceiling has a restrained painted decoration featuring a garland of closely painted flowers and a ring of putti around the central rose. A group of three nudes set against golden rays on the ceiling of the window bay appears unfinished and was possibly executed later by a different hand. A large ornate marble mantlepiece is also present. Several oak doors retain painted panels depicting children in various costumes. Concealed by overpainting, there may be ceiling decoration in the entrance hall and one other ground floor room. The interior decoration is the primary architectural feature of the house.