Danesfield House

Danesfield House

Mansion, now offices. Dated 1899–1901. Designed by F.H. Romaine Walker for Mr Robert Hudson, a soap manufacturer from Bache Hall, Cheshire. Built in Tudor style using dressed chalk with plain tile roofs and brick chimneys featuring groups of richly patterned shafts. Lead rainwater heads are decorated with pierced geometric ornament.

The building follows an approximate E-shaped plan. The central porch provides access to state rooms in the south wing. The west wing contains the former banqueting room and a gatehouse, while the east wing fronts the former stable courtyard. A 1950s wing has been attached to the south west. The composition features battlemented parapets throughout and stone mullion and transom windows with leaded lights.

The west wing is distinguished by a gatehouse tower with a moulded four-centred arch and fan vault, a battlemented oriel window, clock face, and corner turrets. The remainder of this wing comprises one tall storey with one bay window to the left and four to the right. Two-storey gabled bays and the 1950s wing project further to the right.

The entrance courtyard presents a two-storey porch to the centre of the south range and a hall with three tall bay windows to the right. A simpler gatehouse serving the stable courtyard is located in the east wing. The stable ranges were converted to offices around 1980, during which a Tuscan colonnade and a spiral wooden staircase with conical tiled roof in the north west corner were retained.

The south front is composed of five three-storey bays at the centre, flanked by four-storey projecting towers and two-storey outer bays. The central bays feature a ground floor loggia with four-centred moulded arches carried on Tuscan columns. Piers with shell niches articulate the bays in a rhythm of two:seven:two. A pierced parapet with cusped ornament crowns this section, while bay windows light the upper storeys and outer bays. The towers have stepped parapets, corner finials, and three-storey battlemented bay windows.

The interior combines Jacobean work with rooms remodelled during the 1920s in late 18th-century style. The Great Hall features Jacobean panelling with pilasters, a screen with arched double doors, a minstrels' gallery, and a splendid hammerbeam roof with traceried spandrels and richly carved pendants. The roof is dated H 1901 above the gallery. A stone fireplace in French medieval style, dating to circa 1940, has been inserted below the gallery. The entrance lobby beneath the gallery is panelled and contains a carved overmantel to a four-centred stone fireplace. A panelled passage features ribbed plaster pendants to the ceiling.

A panelled Jacobean boardroom is accessed through an internal porch and displays a richly carved wooden overmantel and columns to its fireplace, a ribbed ceiling, and a plaster frieze with copies of heraldic motifs dated ANM 1677. Adjacent to this room is a dining room containing a marble fireplace in Adam style. A south west room features a delicate plaster ceiling in late 18th-century style and a late 18th-century white marble fireplace with low relief carvings of musical instruments.

The grand banqueting room was decorated during the 1920s with Ionic pilasters, a plaster frieze incorporating scrolls and trophies, a grey marble fireplace, and large arched mirrors. A fine Jacobean staircase features rusticated newel posts and pierced balustrading decorated with foliage scrolls, beasts, and heraldry, with a triple arcade to the landing. Upper rooms retain 17th and 18th-century style panelling, and original ornamental tiles survive in some bathrooms.