Forcett Hall

Forcett Hall is a country house built around 1740, with alterations made around 1780. The early 18th-century work was designed by Daniel Garrett for Richard Shuttleworth, and later work was possibly by James Paine. The house is constructed in sandstone ashlar with some render and has Westmorland slate roofs.

The entrance front to the north is rendered with ashlar dressings and rises to three storeys across 1:1:3:1:1 bays. A later ashlar service range of two storeys and basement (formerly a banqueting hall) extends to the left, spanning five bays. The main house has rusticated quoin strips at the ends and between the first and second, second and third, fifth and sixth, and sixth and seventh bays. The central entrance has a leaved 8-panel door set in a keyed basket-arched architrave with unfluted Ionic pilasters supporting a frieze and cornice. Sash windows with glazing bars are set in architraves on the ground and first floors, while the second floor has 6-pane sashes in architraves. A dentil cornice runs across, and a pediment over the central three bays contains crossed acanthus fronds above a ribbon in the tympanum. The roof is hipped and M-shaped. Ashlar chimney stacks rise at the ends and between the first and second, and fifth and sixth bays. The service range has 6-pane basement windows, a door in the fifth bay of the ground floor, sashes with glazing bars on the ground and first floors, and a parapet.

The garden front to the south features the main house at three storeys with basement, arranged in 1:5:1 bays. Rusticated quoin strips mark the ends. The central five bays project slightly and are articulated by a giant order of unfluted Ionic pilasters. The basement has banded rustication and 6-pane sash windows. At the centre, an added imperial staircase with rusticated walls terminates on panelled pedestals and features square-section turned balusters. It leads to a French window with an architrave, pulvinated frieze, and broken segmental pediment containing a block of sarcophagus shape. Other windows have architraves; sashes on the ground floor descend to a sill band that forms the top course of the basement, while the first floor has sashes with glazing bars and the second floor has 6-pane sashes. A dentil cornice and parapet complete the elevation. Ashlar stacks rise at the ends and between the third and fourth, and sixth and seventh bays. To the right, a five-bay service range of two storeys and basement has 6-pane basement windows, sashes with glazing bars on the ground and first floors, a cornice, and parapet. Corniced ashlar stacks stand between the second and third, and third and fourth bays.

The west end of the main house has three storeys and basement across four bays. A plinth runs beneath, with rusticated quoin strips at the corners. The rusticated basement has 6-pane windows except in the first bay, which is blocked by steps. The ground floor has sashes with architraves and a sill band, the first floor has sashes with glazing bars, and the second floor has 6-pane sashes. A dentil cornice and parapet complete the elevation.

The east end of the service range is two storeys and five bays. It has a central 6-panel door with architrave, blind ground-floor windows to its right, and sashes with glazing bars elsewhere. A loggia runs the whole length of the ground floor of the service range on this end, with a Welsh slate roof supported on four cast-iron columns. The roof continues over lean-to ashlar fuel stores built against a quadrant garden wall terminating in a gate pier with banded rustication. The opposite gate pier terminates a wall attached to the Stable Block.

The interior of the main house features an entrance hall to the north with fluted Ionic pilasters and a decorative cornice with enriched modillions. To its right is the staircase hall, containing a carved oak curving open-well staircase with turned balusters topped by large vases supporting a gadroon and an inverted column. The bottom terminating baluster is more elaborately carved. On the south side at the west end is the present library, possibly once the best bedroom. It is said to have been rebuilt after a fire around 1780 and contains an Adam-style fireplace with an annex separated by two fluted Ionic columns and pilasters. To the east is the sitting room, featuring a white marble fireplace with festoons on the frieze, a ceiling frieze with acanthus consoles, and a decorative plaster ceiling with ribbon motifs. Further east is a very fine drawing room with a marble fireplace with yellow Ionic columns and a frieze depicting an urn and grapes. It has softwood panelling and a cornice of modillions interspersed with rosettes, as well as a decorative plaster ceiling with ribbon motifs. To its east is the former dining room, which is very plain with a later undercut cornice.

According to Samuel Buck's early 18th-century sketch held by the Wakefield Historical Society, the hall appeared from the south without its giant order and with narrow wings projecting forward, suggesting that Garrett's work may represent a rebuilding of an earlier structure.