Banqueting House Approximately 50 Metres East Of Weston Hall

Banqueting House approximately 50 metres east of Weston Hall

A banqueting house of late 16th to early 17th century date, built for Sir Mauger Vavasour and his wife Joan Savile. The building is constructed of ashlar and gritstone rubble with alternate quoins and has graduated stone slate roofs.

The house is a three-storey, single-bay tower built on sloping ground. It features a canted bay on the south side and a rear projecting stair turret topped by a gazebo. A plinth runs around the base. Windows throughout are recessed and ovolo-moulded.

The south-facing front has a six-panel iron-studded door at ground level set within a shallow triangular-headed surround with cornice. On the first floor is a five-light mullion and transom bay window with moulded sill and cornice, the ends of which are terminated by shallow consoles decorated with three balls. Above this window is a square sundial. The second floor contains a similar window with continuous dripmould, flanked by roundels containing relief carvings of the Vavasour cock on the left and the Savile owl on the right.

The left return is set back to the left with a flight of stone steps leading up to a studded three-board door serving the stair turret, which has a moulded triangular-headed doorway. At ground-floor level on this elevation are two round-arched recesses with projecting moulded sills and deeply fluted heads. These contain 18th-century gadrooned urns decorated with leaf and swag motifs, although the stems and bases are missing. The first floor has a four-light mullion-and-transom window with cornice projecting over consoles decorated as on the front. The second floor has a similar window with paired plaques below the sill containing coats of arms, flanked by roundels matching those on the front.

The right return at ground floor has two two-light windows. The first floor features a four-light mullion and transom window with details matching the left return, with a similar window above. A lead down-pipe with brackets bearing relief cockerels is positioned to the right. Set back to the right is the stair turret, which has a narrow single-light window at ground floor level.

The rear elevation shows a projecting staircase tower with a single-light recessed ovolo-moulded window lighting the lowest stage, which is at first-floor level. To the left of this is a rear entrance to the ground floor, fitted with a board door in a quoined surround.

The front and side elevations are topped by parapets pierced at the centre with paired double-vase balusters flanked by shields. Central panels to the sides are blocked by stone infill from a later pitched roof. Moulded coping stones run over the parapets, surmounted by cresting composed of a central lozenge and C-scrolls at the centre, flanked by open semicircles with ball finials. Corner chimneys with plinths and cornices appear on the south side.

A board door with shallow triangular-headed lintel on the south side of the staircase tower gives access to the roof. A similar door on the east side of the gazebo is reached by a flight of cantilevered steps from the roof of the front bay.

The gazebo has five-light mullion-and-transom windows filling the full width of each side, positioned above an eaves cornice. It is topped by a shallow pyramidal roof with an elaborate weather-vane.

Interior

The stair turret, gazebo, and first and second floors of the building are plastered, whitewashed, and painted to imitate ashlar. The ground floor of the main front is unheated, with a plain opening giving access to the base of the stair turret. An arched cavity on the west wall is blocked by rubble.

The first and second floors are accessed from the door to the stair turret on the west side. A spiral stone stair provides access to two principal rooms, each fitted with a Tudor-arched corner fireplace bearing decorated spandrels. The upper floor is plastered and the roof is supported by queen-strut trusses.

Historical Context and Setting

The banqueting house is linked to Weston Hall by a sloping lawn, with a garden to the north. No certain structural link between the two buildings is known, although the rubble-filled alcove in the base of the stair turret suggests the possible existence of a tunnel below the embankment leading towards the Hall. A drawing made around 1720 in the owner's possession shows the banqueting house in the north-east corner of a walled enclosure to the east of the Hall.

The original glazing, possibly executed by Barnard Dinninghof and decorated with coats of arms, was removed in the early 19th century.