Keswick Old Hall

Keswick Old Hall is a house dating from around 1600, with significant 18th-century additions. The building is constructed in red brick and colourwashed red brick, with some gault brick, and is roofed in plain tiles and blue glazed pantiles.

The main range comprises four bays arranged over two storeys with a basement and attic. A forward wing extends to the left from the second bay, dating to the 18th century. A stair turret projects to the rear with an 18th-century single-storey extension, and varied extensions extend to the north-east.

The principal west-facing facade features a crowstepped left gable with an internal stack (the shaft rebuilt). An off-centre axial stack stands to the right with a gault brick shaft. The basement includes a doorway to the first bay and low openings to bays three and four. The ground floor displays a Venetian window in bay one with short bowed railings to the centre light, approached by a flight of stone steps with wreathed iron rail. The doorway has an 18th-century doorcase with broken pediment, two columns with fluted necking, and a fanlight with glazing bars. Bays three and four contain flush sashes with glazing bars. The first floor has four flush sashes with glazing bars and a semi-circular headed roof dormer. The right end and right return were rebuilt in brick around 1970 when attached 18th-century ranges to the right were removed.

To the left, an 18th-century link bay and forward wing are built in red brick colourwashed white with blue glazed pantiles and a hipped roof. The wing spans two bays, two storeys and a basement, with flush sashes with glazing bars and flat arches, and wide eaves with modillions. The right return of the wing has similar sashes to the ground floor with blank openings to the first floor. The link bay has blank openings to the basement and similar sashes to the ground and first floors. The north return of the wing features a basement with a large basket arch for a coach-house (now garage), with a garage door to the centre. Various sashes with cambered arches and a semi-circular headed sash with glazing bars to the ground floor left complete this elevation.

The rear of the main range dates to the 17th century and features a stair turret to the centre right, rendered with a crowstepped gable and semi-circular headed light with glazing bars to the attic. To the right of the stair turret is a windowless addition with blue glazed pantiles and a conical roof light with upper part glazed only, together with two gabled roof dormers. Bays one and two consist of two storeys and a basement with flush sashes with glazing bars; the first-floor sash to bay one has low bowed railings. Stone steps with a ramped iron rail lead to the doorway in the south return of the stair turret.

A tall single-storey forward addition to the stair turret and bay four dates to the late 18th century and is said to be by Soane. It is constructed in gault brick with a gabled roof of blue glazed pantiles. A semi-circular bowed window to the front has a copper roof and contains five sashes with glazing bars of 4 by 6 panes, articulated by columns as on the doorway of the west facade. The south return to the left has two large sashes with glazing bars. Various flat-roofed single-storey additions in gault brick with recessed sashes with glazing bars extend to the right.

Internally, a stack to the right was inserted, possibly as an external stack to the earlier house. The basement contains three jewel-stopped chamfered tie beams and extensive barrel-vaulted cellars beneath the north-west ranges, incorporating a game larder with boards bearing hooks labelled with painted days of the week. The ground floor features an 18th-century classical fireplace surround to the former north gable and painted 17th-century wood panelling to bay three and the first floor. A large stack, probably formerly external to the inside wall of bay four, has a fireplace to the ground floor off-centre.

The stair turret contains a steep curved 18th-century cantilevered stair to the first floor only, with cast iron balusters, said to be by Soane. A passageway to the north of the stair turret between the main range and the 18th-century rear extension contains 18th-century doorways with panelled doors and fanlights with glazing bars. Windows to the rear extension have reeded surrounds. The stair to the attic, now in bay two rather than the stair turret, is a closed-string dogleg staircase with turned balusters and some painted 17th-century panelling similar to that on the ground floor. The attic contains timber-studded partitions and a two-tier roof with ashlar pieces and tenoned butt purlins.

A doorway dating to around 1600 stands at the south end bay by the stack, featuring ogee chamfer stops. The stack is an external addition to a partition wall.