Cole Park

Cole Park is a country house with a complex history, originating as a medieval monastic deer-park and evolving into a royal Tudor stud-farm before becoming the seat of the Audley, Harvey, and Lovell families. The site includes a moated area and a monastic lodge. The earliest visible work dates from the mid-16th century (Robert Bolton resided there in 1555), with significant refenestration around 1625 under Sir George Marshall. Alterations were made around 1700, including the addition of a new staircase by John Harvey, followed by substantial additions in 1775-76, dated on the south-east gabled wing, for John and Sarah Lovell. Further repairs occurred in 1796 for Peter Lovell, and from 1981 there was substantial internal refurbishment and alterations, dated above an oriel on the east front, by William Bertram.

The building is constructed from a mix of Tudor and Georgian brickwork, with stone dressings. The north front features a two-storey, four-bay Tudor range on the left and a two-storey, five-bay 18th-century block to the right. The Tudor range has early 17th-century stone cross-mullioned windows, while the 18th-century block has 12-pane sash windows set within moulded architraves with projecting cornices on the ground floor. The north front includes a central engaged Doric porch with a metope frieze, a reeded string course, a bracketted cornice and a parapet with blind balustraded sections and an incised panel. There are three hipped dormers. The west front shows two-storey canted bays at each end. The south front presents a gabled end of the 18th-century block to the left, the Tudor range to the right, and two gabled 18th-century wings to the south-east. The Tudor range features single, two-light, cross-mullioned windows and a tall gabled stair turret to the left, with three tall paired stacks set diagonally and featuring lateral flues.

The interior includes an oak circular newel staircase within the south turret, and a grand staircase dating from around 1700, featuring a ramped handrail, turned and graded balusters, massive oak treads, and a bolection moulded fireplace in the ground floor entrance hall.