Long Marston Hall

Long Marston Hall is a large house and warehouse, now a house, of late 17th-century date with extensions and alterations made in the mid to late 18th century. It is constructed of red-brown brick in Flemish and random bond with ashlar quoins, and has a pantile roof dating from around 1985. The building is of two storeys with attics over part, and is arranged in an L-plan comprising a three-bay entrance range with a two-bay wing projecting at right angles to the right, and a three-bay added block to the left.

The entrance range has a six-panel door with overlight in a plain surround to the right, and an inserted half-glazed door to the left. Sash windows with glazing bars in flush wood architraves under slightly cambered stretcher arches are set throughout: two to the ground floor and three to the first floor. A projecting first-floor band runs across, with an axial stack to the left at the junction with the added block, and a large external three-flue rear stack between bays 2 and 3. Blocked elliptical header-arched openings are visible on the ground floor.

The projecting wing to the right has fenestration matching the entrance range, though the frames are inserted into much larger blocked openings which have sawn-off ashlar brackets forming sills and moulded ashlar cornices to the ground floor. The wing has a raised eaves and hipped roof. Blocked elliptical-arched openings with inserted sashes are found on the left return, and blocked openings with elliptical header arches on the right return.

The added block to the left has a blocked first-floor window in bay 1, partly obscured by an outbuilding attached at right angles. Bays 2 and 3 feature wide central double doors under a five-pane overlight flanked by large four-by-six-pane windows; two sixteen-pane sashes are set above, all with slightly cambered stretcher arches. Straight joins to the upper floor at the centre suggest a large loading door. An end stack is positioned to the left, and the left return has two blocked arched windows to the first floor.

The rear elevation shows a chamfered plinth, a 20th-century board door and small four-pane window below three tiers of paired six-pane windows lighting a rear staircase at the back of the projecting wing on the far left. To the right, irregularly placed sashes with glazing bars and a small oeil de boeuf window are evident.

Internally, the entrance range has a single large room at ground floor with a brick fireplace against the rear wall. A scullery is partitioned off with a steep stone stair in the north corner leading to the cellar below the added block to the left. A small room to the right has a two-panel door with H hinges. The floor is paved with small hexagonal stone slabs, and the corner fireplace has a roll-moulded surround. This room is known as Bishop Morton's Room. The stone floor throughout is laid with very fine joints.

The ground floor of the projecting wing contains a massive panelled door opening into the rear bay, which houses a very fine late 17th or early 18th-century staircase of four straight flights rising to the attic storey. The staircase features bulky oak cup-and-vase balusters and a moulded handrail standing on a solid pine string, with square newels in section and moulded caps. The risers and treads to the attic storey are original. The middle room has a panelled partition across the south corner with a three-panel door contemporary with the dado, providing access to the cellar below the end bay of this wing. The end room is two steps higher and has a six-panel door; the pine and plaster fireplace is of late 18th-century date with vase, lion and satyr-mask motifs and a moulded ceiling cornice.

The first floor of the entrance block has steps down from the first-floor landing into a room (bays 2 and 3) lined with reused 17th-century oak and pine panels in plain and slightly moulded framing. The overmantle is missing and the ceiling moulding sits below the present ceiling height, which has cross-beams with the remains of moulded plaster casing. A partition with three doors divides this room from a blocked staircase, and a small door gives access to a small panelled room and closet beyond. The former fireplace has a stone surround with reeded jambs and a small cast-iron grate, and a doorway provides access to the added range to the left. The first floor of the projecting wing at the centre has a fine wooden bolection-moulded fireplace with a blocked doorway to the left concealed by plaster, and a very fine massively moulded wood and plaster ceiling cornice.

The roof structure above the attic storey of the projecting wing is considerably altered; one large principal truss survives with purlins morticed for windbraces. A pair of principals forming an inverted V indicates the junction of an original roof to the south-east.

The added range to the left of the entrance bay contains a massive brick barrel-vaulted cellar with a barrel ramp, well and a massive drain which continues below ground outside the house for approximately 25 metres.

Long Marston Manor was held by the Thwaite family in the early 17th century, with James Thwaite dying in 1603 or 1604. It is probable that the family sold much of the property during the Civil War period, and they were still living at Marston in 1674. By 1683 the property had passed to the Thompson family; Sir Henry Thompson, who died in 1683, was Lord Mayor of York after the Civil War. By 1723 the hall was probably divided into two parts, with Edward Thompson living in the present building. His daughter, the mother of James Wolfe of Quebec, was born there in 1704. The Thompsons were wealthy York merchants and owned several properties; these factors account for the present appearance of the hall.

The building was originally arranged in a symmetrical U-plan, with the present projecting wing forming the north range. The central entrance block is shown in part in Buck's drawing of the hall from around 1723 and was probably demolished in the later 18th century. The south wing survives as the Old Granary, and a single-storey range now links the two wings. The Thompsons probably added the left three bays as a warehouse and were responsible for alterations to the floor levels of the end rooms of the original wing to provide another cellar. The 17th-century panelling was concealed under plaster, which was removed in 1938.