Netherside Hall

Netherside Hall is a country house dating to circa 1820, possibly designed by George Webster of Kendal for Alexander Nowel. The construction is of coursed rubble with ashlar detailing, topped by a graduated grey slate roof.

The house is built in a Jacobethan style. The main block is two storeys with attics, featuring five bays across and four bays deep. The outer bays are gabled and project slightly, with the central bay dominated by a single-storey porch of three round arches. The porch is topped by strapwork parapet coping framing a circular plaque carved with the Nowel family badge. Decorative scroll and pyramid finials are present.

A recessed two-storey service range sits to the left, extending two bays in length. The central entrance is a studded door with a shallow triangular head and hoodmould. Mullion and transom windows, with two and three lights, are found on the ground and first floors, while two-light windows illuminate the attic level. These windows are all set beneath deep hoodmoulds. Kneelers and tall, pyramidal finials adorn the roofline, along with tall multiflue stacks grouped across and behind the ridge of the central three bays.

At the rear, the house is situated on the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the River Wharfe. The sloping ground allows for an additional basement storey at the rear, incorporating a central canted bay with six-light mullion and transom windows spanning three storeys.

The interior features an entrance into a partitioned vestibule, leading to a large square inner hall with fielded panels. A plain stone fireplace is situated against the left wall, and doors throughout are of three rows of four recessed panels. A first-floor balcony with a cast-iron, arcaded balustrade and a moulded wooden handrail is also present. A large lantern window provides illumination. The stone staircase is located to the left of the hall, and is cantilevered, rising in three straight flights. It has plain square-section iron bannisters, a wooden handrail and extends to the attic storey.

Alexander Nowel, born in Lancashire in 1761, joined the British army in India in 1783, later focusing on indigo dye production. Returning to England in 1805, he rented land at Netherside Wood from the Atkinson family of Linton House and constructed Netherside Hall between 1820 and 1822. The estate comprised 31 acres, leased for 60 years at a rent of 40 shillings per year. Alexander Nowel died at Netherside Hall in 1842.