Conyngham Hall

Conyngham Hall is a large house, now used as offices, located on Bond End in Knaresborough. It was substantially built in the late 18th century for Ellen, Countess of Conyngham, and further extended in the mid-19th century, probably for Basil T Woodd, a Member of Parliament.

The building is constructed of coursed squared gritstone with a roof of Westmorland slate and stone slate. It rises to two storeys across three bays with considerable extensions to the rear.

The south-east façade features a central half-glazed door in a Venetian-style doorway with flanking windows, topped by a segmental pediment with a keystone carved with a female mask and grapes. Above this stands a grand central portico with two pairs of giant Ionic columns supporting a plain entablature with a triangular dentilled and corniced pediment. To the left and right of the portico are paired sash windows in architraves, each crowned with triangular corniced pediments. The first floor has five sash windows with glazing bars, architraves and keystones. A sill-band runs across both ground and first floors, and the roofline is finished with a dentilled eaves cornice, blocking course and balustraded parapet topped with phoenix-type finials. The roof is hipped, with chimney stacks flanking the central pediment and large stacks serving the rear wings.

The left return features two large two-storey canted bay windows with sashes to the right, and French windows flanked by sashes with glazing bars to the left. The right return has a large central bay with sashes featuring glazing bars and its own balustraded parapet. Throughout the upper floors, the windows are fitted with nine-pane unequally-hung sashes.

The interior is notable for its fine 18th-century decoration and later additions. The front entrance hall is supported by Doric columns and features a moulded ceiling cornice. Behind this lies the staircase hall, which contains a wide staircase of two flights with a cast-iron balustrade, newel posts with clustered columns and a moulded wooden handrail. All doors to the front and middle halls are two-panel doors with richly-moulded architraves and plaster pediments containing heads of putti.

The front room to the left, formerly a library, retains 19th-century oak panelling, glass-fronted cases and a Jacobean-style overmantle. The ceiling is of plaster or moulded paper decorated with figures in relief depicting maidens and warriors in scrolls with floral and armorial motifs. The front room to the right has a deep ceiling cornice with classical motifs including guttae.

Rooms accessed from the staircase hall include a former drawing room on the left, which features a fine wood-block floor with a central compass-point motif. The walls and ceiling have panels with friezes of roundels and bead motifs, and a classical-style wooden fireplace carved with swags and strapwork in relief, fitted with an iron fire-basket adorned with brass figures. The dining room to the right displays fine 18th-century plasterwork, restored around 1980. A curved two-panel door from the hall is flanked by alcoves containing fitted side-tables, each supported by two pairs of fluted columns. The walls and ceiling are panelled with decoration of swags of fruit and flowers, scrolls and fan-motifs, with a central boss of feathery leaves. An Adam-style marble fireplace dominates the room. The library, drawing room and dining room all have bay windows with original shutters.

The rear hall and service rooms on the ground floor feature a ceiling between the staircase hall and rear hall with recessed panels, supported by two pairs of cast-iron Ionic fluted columns. To the left is a board door giving access to brick-vaulted cellars beneath the north-east and south-east front parts of the house. The centre contains a dumb waiter rising to second storey height, with the maker's name visible on the pulley wheel. The former kitchen lies to the right, converted in the mid-20th century with fireplaces now blocked. All doors to the rear service rooms are six-panel doors on the ground and first floors.

The first floor features a landing gallery with a cast-iron balustrade matching the stairs, and is lined with four Tuscan-style columns in antis to the front range, and twelve fluted decorated Ionic columns to the centre, supporting a corniced ceiling. The front range contains three rooms, with a central room to the left formerly serving as a bedroom and dressing room suite with bay window, now adapted as an office. The doors from the landing and to the dressing room are decorated with painted pictures of draped female figures in the centre of the top half, framed by painted classical motifs of wheat ears and delicate scrolls, believed to have been executed by Italian craftsmen in the late 18th century. Service rooms at the first floor rear include a linen closet with panelled cupboards and drawers lining the walls.

Conyngham Hall was renamed by Ellen, Countess of Conyngham when she purchased it in 1796. The building was previously known as Coghill Hall, which had been rebuilt by Marmaduke Coghill in 1555. Although the Countess of Conyngham is recorded as having restored and enlarged the house, no evidence of the earlier 16th-century structure was visible at the time of survey, and the stables and gates also date from this later period. Early 19th-century records describe the house as having five projections forming bow-windows, a plan which is shown on the 1851 Ordnance Survey map.

In 1856 the house was purchased by Basil T Woodd, a non-practising barrister who was a Conservative candidate in the 1852 general election. He was elected Member of Parliament for Knaresborough in 1874 and served until 1880, dying in 1895. He was probably responsible for adding the portico and the range of rooms to the front of the building during his ownership. In 1945 the house was acquired by Knaresborough Council and has been leased to Tilcon for an extended period.