Gateley Hall

TF 92 SE 5/35

GATELEY Gateley Hall

4.12.51

GV I

Country House. Datestone on right hand gable of south front recorded as reading "Built by Elizabeth Segrave 12 of (illegible) 1726", now invisible from ground. Rear pile probably C1?. Mid and late C18 improvements. Brick partly limewashed, flint in earlier block and black and red pantiled roofs. Double pile plan. 2 storeys with attic and cellar. Symmetrical 5 bay facade of sash windows with narrow glazing bars beneath skewback arches. Chequer pattern brickwork of vitrified headers discernible despite remaining limewash. Doric doorcase probably of 1726 with fluted pilasters, triglyph frieze and pediment. Partly glazed 2-leaf door with Y-traceried rectangular fanlight. Platbands, plain parapet and 3 flat-headed dormers. Double curved gables with internal stacks to north and south. Large datestone and similarly shaped angled sundial on south gables. Irregular rear facade containing much C17 masonry and with various additions including a fine late C18 2-storeyed semi-circular bay with 6 sash windows with glazing bars beneath skewback arches. Some early sash windows with wide glazing bars elsewhere. Parapet and one flat-headed dormer. Interior. 1726 half-turn-stair with landings. Turned attenuated vase balusters, shaped tread-ends and wide swept handrail. 3 rooms with raised and fielded panelling. Several raised and fielded panelled doors all retaining original locks and fittings. 2 fine doorcases at ground floor, in hall, Doric with fluted pilasters triglyph frieze and broken pediment, in Dining room with broken pediment and eared arachitrave. Improvements of c.1750 include several carved and moulded fireplaces and more importantly exceptional Rococo plasterwork in the hall. The overmantel has an idyllic rustic landscape showing shepherds and animals, houses, a church spire and boldly projecting trees; the whole within an elaborate frame and forming part of the whole chimneypiece with an elaborately moulded fireplace frieze and flanking recesses with semi-domes. Smaller landscape between 2 facade windows depicting an Antique ruin with broken columns and an obelisk. 3 figures:- of a man dressed in a toga, a shepherd with his sheep and a woman in a windswept dress holding her hat on. Very elaborate mirror on opposite wall consisting of many small glass facets surrounded by Rococo scrolls and flamboyant vegetation. Moulded ceiling compartments and bridging joists. Plaster eagle on ceiling of stair vestibule. More usual Rococo plaster ceilings in Dining room and stair well. G. Nares, Country Life, September, 1954. Grade I for exceptional quality and rarity of Rococo plasterwork.

Listing NGR: TF9585923910