Somerley House

Somerley House is a medium-sized country house dating to 1792-5, originally designed by Samuel Wyatt for David Hobson. It was later purchased in 1828 by the 2nd Earl of Normanton, who added a picture gallery between 1850 and 1851. Further remodelling occurred in 1868, with the gallery being refaced and a second floor added by W Burn.

The house is constructed of yellow brick with stone and stucco dressings, and partially stuccoed, with slate roofs behind parapets. The original layout comprised a five-by-six bay, two-story house (with three bays facing the river). In the 1850s, a one-and-a-half-story, six-bay picture gallery was added to one corner, along with a colonnade connecting to it. Burn’s alterations included the addition of a second floor, a single-story projection to the east front, encasing the gallery, and enlargement of the service buildings on the north side. The west, or entrance front, was remodelled in the 1960s, with 19th-century single projections being removed. A repositioned stone Ionic porch now dominates the centre, with double doors and sidelights. Sashes in moulded architraves flank the porch. Small, square-plan, one-story projections with rubbed niches are situated on each corner, connected by a screen wall with architrave frames in each bay. The first floor features a raised sill band and four-pane sashes in architraves. The second floor has a further band and smaller sashes. A molded cornice and balustrade run between bays. A hipped roof sits behind, with stacks on the corners and ridge, positioned either side of the centre.

The south front includes six cross-French windows under an early 19th-century stone colonnade of paired Ionic columns. The picture gallery is refronted in an Italianate style, featuring rustication, niches with statues, a first-floor cornice, architraved panels, a cornice, and a balustrade.

Inside, the entrance hall features a screen of Doric green marble demi-columns and quarter pilasters supporting a frieze, arranged before an archway leading to a two-story, top-lit saloon. To the left is a small study, and beyond that, an 18th-century dog-leg staircase with a plain iron handrail over an oval skylight. The dining room, also from the 18th century and by Wyatt, contains ceramic medallions on the ceilings. To the right is a west library with half-height mahogany bookcases, double doors to an east library containing Italian stucco work on the ceiling and a marble fireplace with an overmantel displaying a portrait. Beyond these rooms is an L-shaped drawing room, which leads to an impressive top-lit picture gallery with a Rubens fireplace and an organ.