Brantwood

CONISTON SD 39 NW 5/68 Brantwood 25.3.70

GV II*

House. c.1797, extended to rear and to right, c.1833; turret added, 1871; dining room added 1878; 2nd storey to rear wing added in 1880s, studio 1897; bay window and octagonal bay added 1905. Roughcast with hipped slate roofs. Front range, overlooking lake, of 2 storeys and 4 bays, the 1st bay is higher and forms elongated octagon on plan; 2nd bay has rectangular bay window with wooden balustrade; 4th bay has angle turret. Windows are sashed with glazing bars, but 1st bay has leaded glazing. 2nd bay has tripartite sashes; 3rd bay has bowed tripartite sash. Hexagonal turret to 1st floor on attached pier; full-height leaded glazing to 5 sides, and pyramidal roof. Cross-axial stack and gable-end stack. Rear wing has various stacks including paired gable-end stacks. Right return has decorative barge-boards and round-headed stair window, the glazing bars with intersecting heads; one-storey dining room projection; hipped roof with flat centre section. Angles have stone double-chamfered clasping buttresses. Front canted French window and return stone window of 7 trefoilheaded lights over weathered projection, the lights having roll moulded openings and trefoils and sexfoils to spandrels. Rear wing of 3 storeys has sashed windows with glazing bars, those to end bay above archway are tripartite. Entrance has 6-fielded-panel door and archway has keystone with letters: "JR". Left hand angle has 2nd floor oriel wrapped round angle with small-paned glazing. Studio to rear of one storey, but on level with 2nd floor; small hipped porch and large tripartite sash. Left return has canted oriel over archway; angle gabled oriel to end of 2nd floor and entrance with glazed doorcase and overlight with glazing bars. Interior: doors have architraves with angle rosettes; dining room has coved ceiling and marble fireplace with round-arched grate. Other rooms have marble fireplaces. Studio has elliptical- arched fireplace recess, fireplace has 4-centred arch and tiled surround; leaded glazing to small window. Shelves over original radiator. Another room has fireplace tiles by Burne-Jones. Noted as the home of John Ruskin, C19 art critic and social critic, from 1872 until his death in 1900. Also the home of William Linton, wood engraver and revolutionary socialist and his wife, the novelist Eliza Lynn; the poet Gerald Massey; and the water colourist Arthur Severn and his family.

Listing NGR: SD3125895854