Fountains Hall

Fountains Hall is a large house, now used as offices and an exhibition centre, built between 1598 and 1611 for Sir Stephen Proctor, with alterations made by Mr Clare Vyner around 1930. It is constructed of grey limestone with a stone slate roof and built in the Renaissance style of Robert Smythson.

The building consists of a three-bay central block of two storeys plus basement, flanked by projecting gabled wings of four storeys plus basement. These are buttressed at each end by five-storey projecting towers. The central entrance has a round arch and is flanked by coupled fluted Ionic columns with statuettes of knights; there are two further statuettes in niches to left and right. Above this entrance is a balcony with balustrade and five statuettes. The basement has five-light windows, while the ground floor has five-light mullion and transom windows flanking and positioned slightly higher than the entrance. Behind the balcony rises a tall semicircular five-light oriel window with two transoms, flanked by equally tall five-light windows with two transoms each—this is the climax of the facade. The flanking gabled wings feature three-storey bay windows with transomed five-light windows to the first, second and third floors, with three-light mullion windows in the gables. The flanking towers have three-light mullion and transom windows to the first, second and third floors. Moulded strings mark each floor level. The building has crenellated parapets, with the wings displaying shaped gables. Large corniced chimney stacks with coupled flues are situated mainly to the rear of the ridge.

The rear elevation shows shallow projecting gabled wings flanking a central recessed range. A board door at third-floor level provides access from a terraced pathway over a short bridge.

The interior contains a great hall reached by a flight of steps to the right immediately inside the entrance arch. Another flight to the left descends to the basement, which contains the kitchen and service rooms. The hall features a screens passage with an enclosed gallery over it. Against the north wall is a large fireplace with a moulded Tudor arch, flanked by large mullion and transom windows, with panelling throughout. The original newel stair is located in the south-west tower. A wooden-framed stair with large balusters and ball finials was inserted in the rear north-east wing around 1930. The Great Chamber contains an elaborate chimney-piece with strapwork, caryatids and a sculptured panel representing the Judgment of Solomon. Its ceiling is a replica of that at Canonbury Tower, installed around 1930.

Sir Stephen Proctor, who served as Collector and Receiver of Fines on Penal Statutes to James I, built the house using stone taken from abbey buildings to the south and east of the cloister, though there is little visible evidence of reuse. He may have built on the foundations of early 16th-century buildings near the Abbey gatehouse. Following Sir Stephen's death in disgrace, the Hall passed through several owners before coming into the hands of the Messenger family, who held it until 1768 when William Aislabie added it to his estate at Studley Park as the culmination of his father's landscaped grounds. The combined estates subsequently passed through the Robinson family of Newby Park, Ripon, including the first Marquis of Ripon (1827–1909), who married Henrietta Vyner. In 1923 the Vyner family came into ownership and the hall became a permanent residence again following restoration. From 1966 the West Riding and North Yorkshire County Councils owned the property until the National Trust acquired the estate in 1983.