Sawley Hall

Sawley Hall is a house and stables of late 18th-century date with mid to late 19th-century alterations, built for the Norton family of Grantley.

The main house is of 2½ storeys, comprising 7 bays by 5 bays in plan, with a rear service wing of 2 storeys and 4 bays. A courtyard on the west side is enclosed by 2-storey stable and service ranges extending approximately 8 bays, with the entrance to the courtyard positioned centrally on the west side.

Construction is of gritstone with a gritstone plinth, coursed squared gritstone and ashlar, with rendered finish. The roof is Westmorland slate. The building features rusticated quoins.

The front elevation is architecturally sophisticated. The entrance consists of central double doors of 6 moulded panels, flanked by attached Doric columns and crowned with a corniced pediment. The central bay is flanked by giant Ionic pilasters with paterae, entablature and a deep moulded cornice. All windows are set within architraves; those on the ground and first floors are sashes with glazing bars, while the attic storey has square 6-pane sashes. A blocking course runs below the hipped roof, which is pierced by three chimney stacks positioned to the left, to the centre behind the ridge, and to the right forward of the ridge.

The rear elevation features a projecting service wing to the right, a large central Venetian stair window, and a 20th-century kitchen range to the left of no special interest. The left return from the courtyard shows projecting 19th-century services to the right, a central glazed door, and a kitchen wing to the left with a gabled porch, sashes with glazing bars, a 9-pane sash above, and a large Venetian window with glazing bars. The right return has a central glazed door flanked by sashes; a lead rainwater pipe with a boar's head badge in relief appears to the left, and a bay to the right has renewed rendering with 20th-century window frames in the upper two windows.

The courtyard west range presents a central segmental carriage arch in a quoined surround with panelled double gates. A board door with an 8-pane overlight is positioned far right, with an inserted 2-light window on the ground floor to the left. Bays 2 and 6 on the first floor contain pitching doors with plain sills and lintels. The east side of the west range has flanking garage doors with ventilators above. The north range on its courtyard side displays three evenly spaced board doors, six 16-pane sashes with projecting sills and lintels, and 12-pane windows to the upper floor. The south range features 19th-century doors and fenestration on both courtyard and exterior sides.

The interior of the house is of considerable quality. The large central entrance hall features a fireplace on the right with a wooden surround carved with acanthus leaves and swags, and dado panelling in moulded surrounds.

The front room to the right, formerly the library, contains a marble fireplace and ceiling frieze with bookcases decorated with classical motifs. The rear room to the right, the drawing room, has a black and white marble fireplace, large wall panels with paterae, urns and swags, and a dentilled ceiling cornice.

The front room to the left is the dining room. It formerly had paired doors from the hall, one now blocked; access is also provided from the north service corridor via a green baize door to the entrance hall centre. At the east end, 4 columns support a cross beam. The west end features an apsidal recess containing a fitted 2-tier sideboard flanked by pilasters and semicircular-arched recesses with cornices, friezes and scrolls to spandrels, with a shelf at dado level. The three windows on the south side retain original shutters and gilded pelmets with carved decoration of flower swags and ribbons. The fireplace on the north wall has a wooden surround with husk decoration and relief of quiver and scrolls, with moulded brackets supporting a deep corniced mantelshelf. Doors throughout are of 6 panels.

The staircase to the rear of the hall comprises 3 straight flights. It is flanked by a Venetian window between fluted pilasters, with dado panelling matching the hall. The balusters are of slender column-type on elaborate turned bases, with square-section newels and a ramped handrail. The stair well ceiling features a circular rose of acanthus leaves with husk and scroll motifs. The landing ceiling is supported by 2 wooden fluted Ionic columns.

The rear wing contains a large square room, formerly the kitchen, with opposing stone arched fireplaces, a high ceiling with central ventilator and a hatch-way in the south end of the east wall connecting to the corridor leading to the dining room.

The courtyard ranges contain loose boxes and stalls with 19th-century partitions and mangers. A 20th-century reconstruction of stables occupies the south end of the courtyard west range.