Moulton Hall

Moulton Hall is an early to mid-17th-century country house built for the Smithson family. It is constructed of ashlar and rubble with pantile and Westmorland slate roofs, rising three storeys plus cellar and attics, arranged on a rectangular plan of five by two bays with a central spine wall containing fireplaces and garderobes. A two-storey service wing projects from the rear right.

The east elevation displays ashlar with banded rustication finished with a hammered effect on the bands, a moulded plinth stepped down below the windows, and chamfered rusticated quoins. A central single-storey flat-roofed porch in chamfered rusticated ashlar features corner Tuscan pilasters supporting a pulvinated frieze and dentil cornice. Above the porch runs a balustrade pierced with quatrefoils and lozenges, with corner pedestals. The porch opening is round-arched; the inner doorway has a keyed architrave interrupted at the bases, mid-jambs and corners with jewelled blocks. Above this is a matching doorway with a frieze containing a central raised block and a cornice.

On the ground and first floors of the first, second, fourth and fifth bays are three-light double-chamfered mullion-and-transom windows, deeper on the ground floor, with triangular pediments in the first and fifth bays and segmental pediments in the second and fourth bays. The second floor has two-light mullion windows in the first and fifth bays with eared and shouldered architraves, and a cross window in the third bay. Three Flemish gables with keyed oculi span the elevation, with copings rising from volutes and flanking ball finials; behind each gable is a pitched pantile roof. A small single-storey 19th-century extension of rubble with plinth and right quoins stands set back to the right, featuring a small oculus, plain eaves band, and large chimney at the right end.

The rear elevation is of rubble, flanked by 20th-century two-storey flat-roofed extensions. The extensions have a central five-light mullion-and-transom window with drip-mould on the ground floor and two cross windows with continuous drip-mould on the first floor. On the second floor are two-light double-chamfered mullion windows at alternating levels. A Westmorland slate roof runs with its ridge parallel to the rear wall. The right inner return of the rear wing has a blocked central chamfered triangular-headed doorway with hood-mould, renewed mullion windows with hood-moulds on the ground floor, some original two-light chamfered mullion windows on the first floor alongside 19th-century openings, and a pantile roof with stone slates at the eaves.

The left return is ashlar with banded rustication, moulded plinth stepped down below a window containing a two-light basement window with chamfered rustication, and chamfered rusticated quoins. A central four-panel door in an architrave with pulvinated frieze and cornice is flanked above by a keyed oculus, above which is a sundial on a raised panel. On the ground and first floors are three-light mullion-and-transom windows with segmental pediments. The second floor has two two-light mullion windows in eared and shouldered architraves. Two Flemish gables as before flank a central ashlar stack set back along the ridge. The right return is rubble with ashlar plinth and chamfered rusticated quoins; ground and first floors have three-light double-chamfered mullion-and-transom windows with pulvinated friezes and cornices, whilst the second floor has two larger keyed oculi and Flemish gables as before, flanking a central stack set back along the ridge.

The interior features an entrance hall with a large fireplace having an elaborately moulded ashlar architrave and a foliage strip around the ceiling edge. The ground-floor room to the front left has a moulded ceiling cornice. The ground-floor room to the front right contains an ashlar fireplace with classical motifs and a Carron cast-iron grate, with a moulded ceiling cornice decorated with a Greek key motif on the frieze.

The main open-well staircase, positioned towards the rear on the left, rises to the second floor and is constructed of richly carved oak. It features newel posts with foliage-drop panels, pierced pendants and urn finials, and instead of balusters, panels carved with roses, pomegranates, acanthus-leaf scrolls and a coat of arms on the first landing. A secondary staircase towards the rear right has square newels with ball finials and stick balusters.

On the first floor, a sitting room in the centre front has an ashlar fireplace with deep bolection moulding and a good ceiling cornice with a foliage perimeter strip and circular central motif with large acanthus leaves.

The house was built for the Smithsons of Moulton Manor. The coat of arms on the staircase commemorates George Smithson's marriage in 1653. Upon his death in 1692, the estate was sold by his widow to Sir Mark Milbank of Halnaby. The Milbank family sold it to pay the dowry when Miss Milbank married Lord Byron in 1815. An early 18th-century drawing by Samuel Buck shows the house with a range of stables and coach-houses to the north.

Tradition associates the house with an early 17th-century date of around 1570, supposedly built by Leonard Smithson, with a claim that James I spent a night here on his journey from Scotland to assume the English throne. However, these stories may more appropriately belong to Moulton Manor.