The Old Deanery

SE 3171 1/2 27.5.49

RIPON MINSTER ROAD (north side) The Old Deanery [formerly listed as The Old Deanery Hotel (Minster Road)]

II*

Mid-C17, altered in 1799 and early or mid C19. Limestone ashlar. Hipped stone slate roof. Tall brown brick stacks. Two storeys and attics. Three-bay front, flanked by 2 gabled wings, gables with chamfered coping on cut stone kneelers. C19 mullion and transom windows, mullions and embrasures chamfered. Wings have 2-storey canted bay windows with strings and parapets. Central door with 4-centred arch and 2-light fanlight, hoodmould with lozenge-shaped label stops. Small central gabled dormer with achievement of royal arms and inscription "RDW Decanus 1799".

Rear also had projecting wings, thus making it originally an H-shaped house; but (presumably in 1799) a 3-bay range was built in the centre, slightly breaking forward. The sloping ground means that there is a semi-basement on this front, with stone steps up to a balcony on the ground floor of the 1799 range, with an ornamental cast iron balustrade. Cased sashes with glazing bars: central door with French windows and fanlight with Gothick glazing bars.

Interior. Principal feature of C17 date is an extremely fine oak staircase occupying most of the east wing: closed string, moulded tail, large vase-shaped balusters and ball finials on newels. All the ground floor ceilings have C17 moulded plaster cornices, including cornices to the joists; except for the 2 rooms in the 1799 range, and for the hall which has dentilled and modillioned cornices (presumably of 1799 date) to its joists: presumably also of 1799 is the wooden hall fireplace with its tall scrolled consoles, and possibly also the wainscotting, with 4-centred arched doors to the staircase. The ceiling of the staircase is also C17, with a moulded roundel in centre, and a frieze of stylised leaves. On the first floor the rooms in the east wing (one of which has a chimneypiece of circa 1799) are unaltered, both with simply moulded C17 plaster cornices: the centre was one large room exactly corresponding to the hall below it, and although this has been divided by later partitions the moulded plaster ceiling survives: the west wing had 3 rooms (as it does now, though the partitions have been slightly moved), all with richer moulded cornices than those in the east wing, and the south one with a moulded roundel in the centre. North room has a diagonally placed fireplace of C18 date: south room some C17 panelling to dado level.

Listing NGR: SE3146671187