Middleton Lodge

Middleton Lodge

A country house with attached service range and balustrade, built between 1777 and 1780 by John Carr of York for George Hartley, a barrister (1726–80). The house is constructed in ashlar sandstone with a Westmorland slate roof.

The main house is a two-storey building of 1:3:1 bays, with a three-storey service range of 2:3 bays to the left. The central three bays project slightly and are topped with a pediment. The building sits on a plinth and features a central pedimented distyle Roman Doric portico with a fluted frieze and dentil cornice with mutules. Below this is a part-glazed door with a fanlight containing radial glazing bars, set within a round-arched architrave with Tuscan capitals. Sash windows with glazing bars are set in architraves; those on the ground floor have a sill band and dentilled cornices. The first floor features a band and sill band, with balustered aprons between beneath the first-floor windows. A modillion cornice runs across the façade. The tympanum contains a cartouche with ribbons above and festoons below. The hipped roof is punctuated by corniced ridge stacks flanking the central bay.

The service range to the left comprises three bays recessed behind a courtyard wall. The central section features a six-panel leaved door beneath a fanlight with radial glazing bars and stepped voussoirs. Sash windows with glazing bars appear on the ground and second floors; those on the first floor are half-size with six panes. A second-floor sill band and cornice run across, with stacks flanking the central bay. The courtyard wall is constructed of coursed stone with central ashlar gate piers featuring banded rustication, cornices and friezes decorated with paterae. A contemporary wrought-iron gate with fleurs-de-lys finials and guilloche motif on the mid-rail sits between these piers. To the left of this gate are two further bays with fenestration matching the three bays already described.

The rear elevation comprises two storeys plus basement, arranged as 2:1:2 bays with a canted central bay. Sash windows with glazing bars are present throughout, with ground-floor sill bands and first-floor bands and sill bands featuring balustered aprons. A dentil cornice runs across, and the hipped roof is crowned with corniced stacks flanking the central bay.

A five-bay service range extends slightly recessed to the right. Sash windows with glazing bars appear on the ground and second floors, except for a casement window in the second bay of the second floor; first-floor windows are half-size with six panes. A cornice and hipped roof feature corniced stacks positioned between the first and second, second and third, and fourth and fifth bays. The right return comprises 1:1:1 bays with a canted central bay, sitting on a plinth. Sash windows with glazing bars are present except for a doorway in the central side of the ground floor of the canted bay. Ground-floor sill bands and first-floor bands with sill bands and balustered aprons are featured. A dentil cornice and hipped roof with corniced stacks flanking the central bay complete this elevation.

A seventeenth-century balustrade runs along the edge of the terrace and returns to the house at the north-east corner. This balustrade was brought from Halnaby Hall, approximately three miles to the east, which was demolished in 1953.

The interior features an entrance hall with a fluted and roundel frieze. To the right lies a library with a dentilled cornice. Behind this is an octagonal drawing room with niches and an anthemion frieze. Beyond that is a morning room with a coved fluted frieze. To its left is an elliptical dining room with niches and a frieze decorated with urns and scrolls. The central space contains an elliptical staircase hall with six Doric doorcases with guttae to the cornices. Cantilevered stone stairs with plain wrought-iron balusters rise within this space. The first-floor landing features round-arched doorways with open pediments on consoles. Above the landing is a dome with lunette windows in the coving. Octagonal and oval bedrooms are positioned above the best rooms on the floor below. The main rooms are fitted with window shutters and six-reeded panel doors, those to the dining room being curved; other rooms have fielded panels. One of the roof beams is dated 1780.