Baldersby Park House

SE 37 NE RAINTON WITH NEWBY BALDERSBY PARK

3/68 Baldersby Park House - 10.7.70 GV I

House. 1718-21 with extensive C19 refenestration and C20 alterations to interior. By Coten Campbell for Sir William Robinson. Ashlar, with Westmorland slate roof. Palladian style. 2 storeys. 5-bay square principal block set forward with 3-bay flanking pavilions joined by wings. Central 3-bays have 4 attached giant fluted Ionic columns carrying entablature and dentilled triangular pediment with scrolled foliage and deep eaves. liodillion eaves cornice. Parapet with balustrade. Flat roof with gable to pediment and chimneys to each side. Central panelled double door flanked by pilasters with entablature under radial fanlight in architrave with keystone moulded and with head. Architraves with triangular pediments to ground floor windows; eared and shouldered architraves to first floor windows, all windows plate glass sashes. Left return: 5 bays, continuing in style of front. Central door flanked by Ionic columns with alternate frosted rustication and plain blocks, large rusticated voussoirs and triangular pediment above. Segmental pediments to ground floor windows. Left return: 7 narrower bays, continuing in style of front, but all openings C19 or C20 except central door with Ionic frosted-rusticated columns, entablature and dentilled triangular pediment. Wings to left and right of main block each have a colonnade of 4 Ionic columns, that to the left now glazed, with balustrade over and a giant Diocletian window with blind outer lights to first floor. Pavilions: each of 2 storeys, 3 bays. Central tripartite windows with triangular pediment to ground floor, partly blocked and concealed by ivy in left pavilion. All windows plate glass sashes. flipped roofs with central stacks. Interior: front room, left side - a marble fireplace with draped caryatid holding lamps. Some possibly C18 plasterwork. Front room, right - marble fireplace with Corinthian columns and mask with vine leaves. Left wing, front room has much altered fireplace with possi'Dly C16 frieze of putti and shield in strapwork surround. Marble plaque above with relief of Adam and Eve expelled from Eden. C19 and C20 alterations include removal of a partition wall to enlarge the front room, left, and relocation of fireplace to make it central to the enlarged room. C18 and C19 extensions to rear. Formerly known as Newby Park, this was the first villa to be built in England in the Palladian style (H Colvin and J Harris, pp 97-105). George Hudson, the 'Railway King' bought the estate from the Earl de Grey in October 1845 and sold it to Viscount Downe in 1854. L. Boynton, 'Newby Park, the first Palladian Villa in England' in H Colvin and J Harris, (eds.), The Country Seat. Studies in the History of the British Country House, London, 1970, pp 97-105.

Listing NGR: SE3878776282