Cotterstock Hall And Attached Outbuildings

Cotterstock Hall and Attached Outbuildings

A country house dating from 1658 (as shown by datestone inscribed N/J.M. for John Norton), with early 18th-century alterations and a mid-19th-century staircase addition. The building is constructed of squared coursed limestone with ashlar facades and Collyweston slate roofs. Originally built on an H-shaped plan, the north-east wing no longer survives.

The house comprises two storeys with attics and basement. The entrance front faces south and displays five bays with flanking bays that project forward as gabled cross wings. A central two-storey porch also projects forward, featuring a recessed attic storey and gable above. The porch has a central archway with a keystone and is flanked by console brackets that carry a semi-circular overthrow displaying the arms of Viscount Melville. The inner door is a six-panel design. The flanking wings contain pairs of 18th-century sash windows with glazing bars and plain architraves with keyblocks on the ground floor, with plain aprons beneath each window. The first floors of the porch, the section to its left, and the flanking wings contain three-light stone mullioned windows with transoms and cavetto-moulded eared architraves, with ovolo-moulded detailing. Similar three-light stone mullioned windows appear in the attics of the flanking gables and in the basement. Windows to the right of the porch and to the return walls of the flanking wings have been blocked. A chamfered plinth runs along the base, with a string course separating ground and first floors. The porch has a flat roof and stone balustrade with square-section balusters and ball finials at the corners. The central scroll gable contains a square-headed doorway with eared architrave opening onto the flat roof, with a blind oval lozenge and datestone above. Wooden roof dormers flank the porch, featuring leaded casements and curved gablets with ball finials. Ashlar gable parapets with ball finials at apex and eaves are repeated across the facades. Ashlar ridge stacks with moulded cornices complete the exterior detailing. Square panels appear in the apex of the gables, with the left panel containing a sundial.

The left elevation of the entrance front contains six bays, including a four-window range of two-, three- and four-light stone mullioned windows, some with transoms. A square-headed doorway and four-light staircase windows occupy the left-centre position. The central gable features a three-light stone mullioned attic window. The right elevation is similar, containing four bays with a pair of 18th-century sash windows to the right and a three-light attic window above. The rear elevation follows the same architectural style and includes a projecting gabled cross-wing to the right. A 19th-century staircase projection with a tall stone mullioned window and two reset oval lights is positioned centrally. A three-light stone mullioned window with transom appears to the first floor left. A wall attached to the left of the main front has ashlar coping and forms the rear wall of a rectangular range of single-storey outbuildings. The rear elevation of this range contains a four-window series of two-light stone mullioned windows, a central arch-headed doorway, and a plank door to the right, all beneath a lean-to roof.

The interior features a grand entrance hall with an early 18th-century triple arcade of wooden Tuscan columns on the right side, originally open to the main hall, with a similar arcade formerly existing to the left. A limestone fireplace dating to circa 1658 occupies the hall to the right of the entrance, featuring a pulvinated frieze, eared and bolection-moulded surround, and moulded cornice. The Morning Room in the south-east wing contains a fireplace with eared surround, flanking scrolls, and a central carved floral panel. A fireplace with bolection-moulded surround is noted in the south-west wing, though this room was not inspected. A room to the left of the entrance hall contains an early 18th-century fireplace, probably of Alwalton Marble, with bolection-moulded surround, alongside late 17th-century panelling, though not inspected. The kitchen in the north-west wing features a large open fireplace with segmental arch head. A staircase to the far left of the entrance dates to circa 1658, with closed string, straight flights with doglegs, turned balusters, and panelled newels. Chamfered beams run throughout the house. Four rooms on the first floor contain 17th-century fireplaces with moulded stone surrounds and panelling, though not inspected. A south-west attic room, not inspected, features reset 17th-century scratch-moulded panelling and is reputed to be where the poet John Dryden stayed during his visits in 1698 and 1699.

The house was occupied by the Norton family until approximately 1693, when it was sold to Elmes Steward. It subsequently passed to John Rose in the 18th century and to C.P. Berkley in the early 19th century. Jane Dowager Countess of Westmorland purchased the house in 1843. Her relative, the third Viscount Melville, completed the staircase in 1857.