Holme Hall

Holme Hall is a Grade I listed mansion located on Holme Lane in Bakewell. The building is dated 1626 and 1628, though it incorporates earlier and later additions. The main 1626-28 range was built for Barnard Wells.

The house is constructed of coursed limestone and chert with ashlar sandstone used for the porch facade, parapets, stacks and dressings. It is roofed in graduated slate and stone slate.

The principal 1626-28 block comprises three storeys and measures 3 by 4 bays. To the rear right is a later 17th-century wing, lower in height and of 3 bays. A two-storey wing with attic and 3 bays stands against the left return, forming an L-shape that encloses an even earlier wing adjoining the rear left corner of the main block. Throughout the building are various mullioned and transomed windows fitted with leaded lights.

The entrance front, facing south, is symmetrical and features large quoins with a chamfered plinth. At the centre stands a three-storey porch with a moulded doorway infilled by an ovolo-moulded cross-window. The lintel bears a recessed date panel inscribed "BWB 1626". Above this is a moulded and transomed four-light window with dripmould to the first floor, and a double-chamfered four-light window to the second floor. On either side are early canted two-storey bay windows with renewed cross-windows and rectangular-pane leaded lights; the second-floor windows match those at the centre, featuring diamond-pane leaded lights. String courses run beneath embattled ashlar parapets with shaped finials. A central bellcote, said to bear the date 1628 and the name "Barnard Wells", crowns the facade. The hipped roof has rolled-lead ridges and a large central stack with band, cornice and ashlar pots.

The wing to the left is set back and contains various double-chamfered mullioned windows with iron casements and Gothick leaded lights. One first-floor window to the right is a single-light six-over-nine sash, and all windows feature dripmoulds. A studded, cross-boarded oak door in a chamfered, quoined surround cuts through a pointed-arched doorway of uncertain date. A parapet links three dormers, each with a keyed oeil-de-boeuf beneath an ogee gable with moulded copings and finial. The hipped roof has a corniced ridge stack and three matching dormers to the left return.

The right return of the 1626-28 block displays ovolo-moulded cross-windows to each floor with interrupted dripmoulds. A 19th-century doorway to bay 3 has a studded door and fanlight with ogee glazing bars set in a moulded, arched surround beneath a hoodmould. The later wing to the right, of 17th-century origin, contains a doorway to bay 3 and two-light double-chamfered mullioned windows to the outer bays. The first-floor centre has a single-light window beneath a 19th-century arched three-light window. An ashlar parapet with finials and an end stack on the right complete this elevation. At the rear, the earliest wing has a large external end stack adjoined by winding stone steps leading to an attic door; an ashlar stack rises to the ridge of the stone slate roof.

Internally, the ground floor of the earliest wing contains a massive kitchen fireplace with a chamfered arch and niches. Large scantling ceiling beams join into a transverse beam, now clad, possibly marking the line of a former screen. The room above has a bolection-moulded fireplace and two-panel door. A fragment of a smoke-hood is said to survive in the attic to the rear of this wing. The 1626-28 range features ashlar fireplaces backing onto the central stack, with oak panelling to the principal rooms and carved friezes of differing designs. A closed-string oak staircase with turned balusters and half-balusters against the newels is fitted with a deep-section handrail and early pendants, though the ball finials are later. The lower and upper passageways were generally remodelled in the early 19th century with six-panel doors and basket archways. The second floor of the rear-right wing contains a former chapel with a cambered tie beam and arched ceiling.