Stanhoe Hall

Stanhoe Hall

House built in 1703. It was constructed as a wedding gift from her father Sir Thomas Turner when Jane Turner married Thomas Archdale. The design is possibly by Henry Bell of King's Lynn, the architect much employed by Sir Thomas Turner. Thomas Kempe of Stanhoe is also recorded as the stone mason involved in construction.

The building is constructed in Flemish bond red brick with ashlar dressings and a tiled roof. It is two storeys with attics. The plan is double pile under a single depth hipped roof, arranged as 7 bays. The entrance front features three projecting central bays with 2 flanking bays. There are 6 ground floor and 7 first floor sashes with 8 panes and glazing bars, set within ashlar architrave surrounds with sills. The stone doorcase is of Baroque inspiration, with outer pilaster strips, console brackets and a bolection moulding frieze supporting a cornice and broken segmental pediment. The inner architrave has lugged ears. The outer doors are 6-panel raised and fielded in two leaves, with part glazed two-leaf inner doors. Other features include a moulded stone plinth, a string course, a first floor platband, and raised and chamfered end quoins. The eaves are moulded wood with a simplified projecting modillion cornice and deep projection with guttering. Three replacement pedimented 2-light casement dormers are present. The hipped roof has two chimney stacks only to the central flat valley.

An attached single storey orangery addition dates from around 1840. It has 3 fixed sashes with glazing bars and one two-leaf glazed door, all with fanlight glazing bar heads under semi-circular rubbed brick arches with stone drip moulds. A stone dentil eaves cornice is present. A brick curtain wall of the same build marks the base of a former demolished service wing. The west garden front has a single ground floor part glazed door and one first floor sash with glazing bars. A rectangular brick and ashlar bow window addition of around 1840 stands to the north, with 3 west-facing sashes, and one each on the north and south sides with glazing bars and a stone cornice and balustrade above. The north front has a single projecting central bay with 3 flanking bays, containing 6 ground floor nine-pane height and 7 first floor eight-pane height sashes with glazing bars and ashlar architrave surrounds. A central doorcase with ashlar architrave and pediment has a glazed door. An ashlar plinth string and first floor platband continue around all facades.

The interior features a central south stone flagged hall with panelling and a bolection moulding fireplace. Two panelled rooms lie to the north. A half-turn staircase with landings has simple strings and 3 turned barley sugar balusters per tread with a panelled dado. Central east-west axis ground and first floor corridors divide the two piles. The first floor contains 3 north and 3 south panelled rooms, some with bolection moulding fireplaces. Raised and fielded doors with brass furniture are present throughout. Service stairs at the east end have ribbon pattern balusters rising from the first floor landing.

The rigid symmetry of the double pile plan on ground and first floor suggests the hand of Henry Bell, much employed by Sir Thomas Turner and his family.