Nunnington Hall

Nunnington Hall is a Grade I listed country house with a complex building history spanning from the mid-16th century to the 20th century. The original house was probably built in the mid-16th century for Dr Robert Huickes. It was substantially remodelled around 1600 by Thomas Norcliffe, then refronted on the south side and extended around 1685 by Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston. A porch, rear service range and water tower were added, along with further minor alterations in 1921 by the architect Walter Brierley, commissioned by Colonel and Mrs Fife.

The earliest work is built in coursed rubble stone, while the remainder is constructed in dressed sandstone with sandstone ashlar quoins and dressings, beneath a stone slate roof.

The south front is the most formal elevation, displaying two storeys with five bays flanked by two-storey and attic, two-window gabled cross wings, and a two-storey, one-window quoined extension at the left. A central 20th-century glazed door in an eared architrave with broken pediment contains a cartouche. Above this, first-floor glazed double doors open onto a balcony with a wrought-iron balustrade of twisted bars and scrolled centre section, with a matching eared door architrave and broken segmental pediment containing a renewed cartouche of the Preston arms. All ground and first-floor windows are unequal 15-pane sashes, while the cross-wing attic windows are 12-pane sashes, each with eared architraves and moulded sills. Lead rainwater heads and drainpipes with ornate clamps occupy the re-entrant angles. Pairs of hinged wrought-iron brackets are mounted on the return walls of each cross wing. Small 20th-century roof lights have been added. The cross wings have coped gables, shaped kneelers and ball finials. The extension features a blocked window architrave on each floor, an eaves band and a plain parapet with moulded coping to its flat roof.

The west front comprises a two-storey and attic, one-window gable end of the 16th-century house at the left, a circa 1600 extension to the right with two storeys and attic across three bays, and a late 17th-century two-storey, one-window extension projecting at the far right. A one-storey porch in the 16th-century part contains a 20th-century panelled door, with a two-light mullion-and-transom window at its left and a similar three-light window above the door. A two-light mullion window occupies the attic space, all with square lattice glazing and flat hoodmoulds. A gable end stack rises from this section. The circa 1600 front displays an external stack at its centre flanked by three-light mullion-and-transom windows on ground and first floors and to gabled dormers. The far right late 17th-century addition, positioned in front of a second external stack, contains a 15-pane sash in an eared architrave on each floor. Dormer gables are coped with ball finials. Both stacks are water-tabled at eaves level.

The east front displays two storeys and attic across six bays with irregular fenestration, plus a one-storey, five-window quoined extension at the right. A 20th-century panelled door placed left-of-centre sits in a door case of bolstered blocks with a cornice hood, flanked by unequal 15-pane sashes in double-chamfered openings beneath a continuous hoodmould. Fifteen-pane sashes occupy the first floor, with a gabled dormer containing a mullion-and-transom window, all with hoodmoulds. Water-tabled projecting stacks flank each side. At the far right, double-chamfered openings contain a single-light window on the ground floor, a mullion-and-transom window on the first floor, and a two-light mullion window on the second floor, all with square lattice glazing. Coped gables and shaped kneelers crown the main elevation, with a right end stack. The extension features 12-pane sashes and a flat dormer with square lattice glazing, with a right-of-centre stack to roof hipped at the right.

On the north side, a wing of the original 16th-century house projects at the right, retaining a chamfered surround of a ground-floor window.

The interior contains several features of note. The dining room, located in the ground-floor room at the left end, features a chimney-piece and overmantel with two tiers of pilasters and bolection-moulded panelling. A ground-floor room of the extension displays ceiling paintings on canvas representing the arms of Viscount Preston and his wife, Lady Anne Howard. The oak hall contains an elaborately carved stone chimney-piece bearing Lord and Lady Preston's joint coat of arms. Finely crafted pedimented door cases, wall panelling and an arcaded stairwell screen survive. A geometrical-patterned stone floor is present. The staircase is a closed-string, open well design with dumb-bell balusters, a moulded handrail and sunk-panelled newels, though the stair treads are replacements in pine. The first-floor drawing room features a chimney-piece and overmantel with Ionic pilasters.