Middleton Hall

Middleton Hall is a house built around 1800, constructed in limestone ashlar with a hipped slate roof. It is a substantial building of 6 bays, 3 storeys and an attic, with ranges extending to the rear left and right, infilled by a stairwell topped by a rectangular glazed lantern not visible from outside.

The principal south-facing facade features large and small axial chimney stacks, a small roof dormer to bay 1, and a raised stone platform extending across the facade and returns. Bays 1, 2 and 6 of the ground floor have recessed sashes now of 4 panes, while bays 3 and 5 have blank openings. A portico to bay 4 consists of 2 Tuscan columns with square capitals and entablature, with a wide part-glazed door flanked by lights. The first floor has recessed sashes with glazing bars (4 x 4 panes), those to bays 1, 3 and 5 being dummy windows with blank walls behind the glazing; bay 2 has a top-hinged casement with pseudo-glazing bars in plastic replacing an original sash. The second floor has 6 recessed sashes with glazing bars, 5 panes wide by 3 panes deep.

The east facade features a bowed return of the front range, 3 storeys high, with a 4-bay 2-storey range of equal height to its right. The bowed return has wide overhanging eaves and a part-conical slate roof. The ground floor has an opening to the left matching the south facade and a double-leaved door to the right. The first floor has a sash to the left as on the south facade and a blank opening to the right with painted glazing bars. The wing to the right has a ground floor with 2 tall flat-roofed canted bay windows containing full-height sashes with glazing bars, and a first floor with 4 openings: bays 1, 3 and 4 feature sashes as bay 2 of the south facade, whilst bay 2 has a sash with glazing bars. A long low single-storey rendered extension extends further right, featuring a large central chimney stack that has been cut down.

The west facade comprises a bowed return to the front range on the right, with a 3-bay range to the left. The bowed return has eaves and roof matching the east return, and is 2 storeys high with 1 central ground floor window as on the south facade. The first floor has 3 openings: the centre and right feature sashes with glazing bars, whilst the left is blank with painted glazing bars. The 3-bay range to the left of this is 3 storeys and an attic. Bays 2 and 3 of the ground floor have a flat-roofed forward extension (rendered) containing two large double-leaved glazed doors with flanking and superlights, with a doorway to bay 1. The first floor has 3 renewed openings matching bay 2 of the south facade. The second floor has 3 sashes with glazing bars of 4 x 3 panes. Attic dormers are present. A rectangular water tank of around 1900 sits on the roof, featuring rendered walls and a copper cupola with windvane. A lower 2-storey 2-bay brick service extension stands to the left, set back, with a hipped slate roof matching the main house.

The rear north facade is of shell carstone with attached lower ranges.

The interior features an entrance vestibule with 20th-century oak panelling. A room to the west contains 2 fluted Corinthian columns to the east and a black marble fireplace with brass masks of a god wreathed with ivy and a goddess wreathed with vines. A room to the east has fluted columns flanking a bow and a deeply moulded doorway with patera.

The central stairwell contains a rectangular skylight with geometric glazing bars. Plaster rondels of deities decorate the walls below. An open-string open-well staircase features carved brackets to the stairs, a wreathed and ramped handrail, and turned balusters with twisted stems, mostly of wood but some of matching cast iron. The cast iron newels take the form of slender fluted Corinthian columns.

The ballroom to the east has double-leaved doors with shaped panels, original brass hinges and fretwork finger plates, and plaster festoons over the doorways. The ceiling features plasterwork and a rose. A yellow marble fireplace with surround contains tiles with raised and gilded foliage sprays and painted rustic scenes.