Escrick Park

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 11/01/2018

SE 64 SW 2/18

ESCRICK MAIN STREET Queen Margaret's School Escrick Park

(Formerly listed as Escrick Park, ESCRICK PARK ESTATE, ESCRICK)

25.10.51

GV II* Small country house, now school. Main block of c1680-1690 for Henry Thompson, with alterations and additions of 1758 (1758 on rainwater head) and range to rear of c1765 by John Carr for Beilby Thompson and later additions and alterations including mid C19 wings, and with C20 additions of no particular interest.

Main block and wings: cement rendered with ashlar dressings, with Carr range to rear of pinkish-brown brick with red brick and ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roof.

Main block of three storeys and seven bays with single-storey, two-bay extension to right forming side entrance and single-storey, singe-bay extension to left forming loggia and library. Wings are set back to rear, that to right has block of two storeys and three bays, that to left of two storeys, four bays. C19 entrance to right side aportico of four Ionic columns supporting frieze, cornice and balustrade. Within a six-panel double-door.

Main range: ground floor has mainly full-height openings with C20 casements, that to left extension is blind and that to right a tripartite window with two-pane sashes. First floor band. Single-storey ranges surmounted by balustrades, balusters to left missing. First floor has 12-pane sashes. Second floor band. Attic storey has six-pane sashes. All openings in architraves. Moulded modillion cornice, frieze, and balustrade with alternate panels and groups of six balusters. Decorative urns to corners. Concealed hipped roof. Two lead rainwater heads inscribed 'BT 1758' for Beilby Thompson. Carr range to rear has canted bays. Mainly 12-pane sashes with ashlar sills and flat arches of red gauged brick. Early C20 infill between bays.

Interior includes mid C18 imperial staircase with rod on carved vase balusters and wreathed handrail. Moulded ceiling with medallion heads of Democritus, Heraclitus, Hippocrates and Socrates to corners and panels containing naturalistic motifs, surrounded by modillion and fleurette cornice. Other half of ceiling destroyed in flood. Other good cornices. Former dining room now headmaster's study remodelled by Carr and has Neo-classical ceiling, frieze, cornice and panelling. Late C18 fireplace in yellow and white marble probably by John Fisher of York. Library remodelled c1830 has fitted bookcases, gilded ceiling and decorative cornices, probably by Edward Blore.

Now Queen Margaret's School.

Pevsner N. Yorkshire, York and the East Riding, 1978, pp 224-5. York Georgian Society, The Works in Architecture of John Carr, 1973, p11. Essay by Titus Forbes-Adam.

Listing NGR: SE6319142283