Aldby Park

SE 75 NW BUTTERCRAMBE MAIN STREET WITH BOSSALL (north side, off) Buttercrambe 6/8 Aldby Park

GV II*

Country house. 1726 on datestone with C20 addition. Possibly by the owner, John Brewster, under Vanbrugian influence. Brick in Flemish bond, ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roof. Originally double pile plan with entrance to south and spinal passage, now altered to central hallway entry with entrance to west and C20 orangery to south. Garden front: 3 storeys and basement, 9 bays: 1:2:3:2:1, breaking forward twice with quoins and bands to ground and first floors. The 3-bay ashlar central section is flanked by rusticated pilasters and the ground floor is articulated by Ionic pilasters supporting an entablature. The first floor is articulated by Composite fluted pilasters supporting a frieze with carved panel of a pheasant between 2 foxes and dentilled pediment with richly carved tympanum including George I's cypher on a banner and central shield impaling the arms of Darley and Brewster, surmounted by bust of George I. The second floor has plain pilasters. Basement windows: 6-pane sashes with rusticated surrounds and triple keystones. Flight of steps to central entrance with double doors under radial fanlight. Sash windows with glazing bars to outer bays in eared architraves on consoles. The central section has round-arched sashes with glazing bars and radial glazing in heads flanked by pilasters and with moulded archivolts to ground and first floors. Sashes with glazing bars to second floor with blind central panel. The ground floor windows rest on balustrades and the first floor windows surmount panels with carved enrichment, the central one bearing the initials J B. Rainwater heads inscribed ' B ' with dog's head crest on the clamps. Balustrade to central J J section with ball finials, plain parapet to outer bays. Interior: much altered by Henry Brewster Darley in early C19, but Vanbrugian chimneypiece survives in entrance hall, and most of the C18 panelling. Early C19 imperial stair in entrance hall, 1 flight dividing into 2. Home of the Darley Arabian, C18 forebear of modern thoroughbred racehorse breed. Country Life, vol 78, November 1935; Pevsner, Yorkshire: The North Riding, 1966.

Listing NGR: SE7324458407