Aislaby Hall, Front Wall And Gate Piers

Aislaby Hall, Front Wall and Gate Piers

This mid-18th-century hall was built for Thomas Hayes. A wing was added in 1896 (dated on the rainwater head) incorporating the remains of an earlier house, and the building was reroofed in the 19th century. The wing was extended and a porch was added to the garden side in 1906.

The front elevation features hammered grey sandstone ashlar with a sandstone ashlar parapet. The sides and rear are coursed squared rubble. The extension is partly squared sandstone and partly rendered, with a blue pantile roof. The building follows a central-staircase plan, two rooms deep, with a service wing added and later extended.

The front is 2 storeys and 5 windows wide, with a 2-storey extension to the right, set back in two stages. The central door has 6 fielded panels beneath a blind Gothick fanlight, set in an open-pedimented doorcase with fluted Doric pilasters. The sash windows have original glazing bars and are 12-pane, with stone sills in architraves. The first-floor centre window has an eared architrave. Raised chamfered quoins run up the front, with raised bands at first-floor and eaves levels. The parapet is panelled with a moulded coping. The hipped roof has end ridge stacks. The first stage of the extension has a keyed oculus with radial glazing bars on the ground floor.

The garden front is 2 storeys with 3 windows, featuring a projecting central porch. A 2-storey, 2-window wing to the left has a further later extension. The porch contains a part-glazed panelled door which echoes the Venetian form of the window above, with a keyed rusticated arch on Doric pilasters. The central window above the porch is a sash with a Gothick head. Other windows are single-pane sashes that have been converted to 12 panes by glazing bars fixed to the frames, with plain raised surrounds and triple keyblocks. A triangular lead water butt stands beside the porch. The left return has 12-pane sash windows and features a rainwater head and drainpipe with fancy clamps, alongside a massive lead water butt initialled TH and dated 1714. The wing and extension have single-pane sashes in raised surrounds with triple keyblocks.

The interior is largely intact. The entrance hall contains doors of 6 fielded panels in architraves with pulvinated friezes and broken pediments, with a Doric frieze above. The plaster ceiling moulding features Hayes arms. A cut string cantilevered dogleg staircase has urn-turned balusters and a ramped, wreathed moulded handrail on a turned newel, with wave-shaped tread ends. A Venetian Ionic stair window with pulvinated frieze lights the staircase.

The left front room has an imported late-18th-century chimney-piece, eared door architrave, and fielded dado panelling beneath a rail with carved fret repeated on the window architrave. It has a moulded cornice on shaped brackets. The right front room is open to the hall (the partition was removed in 1896) and contains a broken pedimented doorcase in the opposite wall, probably re-set at that time. It has an eared fireplace architrave, dentilled cornice shelf, sunk dado panelling, panelled shutters and a window seat.

The panelled left rear room has a finely carved marble chimney-piece with foliage enclosed in fretwork quatrefoils. Flanking early-19th-century elliptical-arched alcoves have reeded surrounds. A dado rail with guilloche moulding, panelled shutters and window seat are present, and a scroll-pedimented overdoor has been added.

The first floor has landing doors of 6 fielded panels with later pedimented overdoors. A modillion cornice with enriched pulvinated frieze (possibly added) is present, with a plaster ceiling rose. The bedrooms contain original fireplaces, panelled cupboards, dado rails and good door and window woodwork.

The front wall and gate piers are cruciform in plan, approximately 2.25 metres high, with chamfered-rusticated bands and a moulded cornice. They have flat caps and ball finials, of which only one remains.