Bedale Hall

Bedale Hall is a large house of around 1735, built in red brick and ashlar with some cement-rendered sections and a graduated stone slate roof.

The building is arranged on two storeys with a complex plan. The main front faces north and comprises nine bays arranged as 2:1:3:1:2, with the central five bays breaking forward, and the innermost three bays breaking forward again. The outer two bays on each side are cement-rendered; the remainder is ashlar. A stone plinth runs across the front. The centre features a half-glazed door with overlight set within an Ionic portico that has a frieze, cornice and triangular pediment. The two bays flanking this central feature have sashes with glazing bars in eared architraves set on a cill band, with friezes and segmental pediments above. The inner windows also have friezes and segmental pediments, while the outer windows have friezes and cornices. Above these are square windows in eared and shouldered architraves. The outer two bays on either side have sashes with stone cills on both floors. A dentilled cornice runs across, with a triangular dentilled pediment above the central three bays. The parapet is plain except for balustrades flanking the pediment, and the roof is hipped to the central five bays.

The west front is rendered. It has eleven bays. A half-glazed door in bay four is set in a semi-circular Doric porch supported by two columns and two pilasters, with frieze, cornice and blocking course. All windows have sashes with glazing bars, architraves and projecting cills except for the ground-floor sash in bay one. A stone dentilled cornice and parapet run across, and the roof is hipped to the right with ridge stacks.

The east front is also rendered and comprises six bays. A six-panel door with fanlight is positioned in bay three within a stone Doric porch with two columns and two pilasters, frieze, cornice and blocking course. Bay one has a sash with glazing bars; bays two, five and six are blind on the ground floor; bay four has a sash. On the first floor, bays one, five and six are blind, while bays two, three and four have unequally-hung nine-pane sashes. All windows have architraves and projecting cills. The roof is hipped to the left with a ridge stack.

South of the east front is a five-bay brick facade that breaks forward from the two left-hand bays. On the ground floor, two sashes with glazing bars are positioned to the left, while the central bay and right-hand bay have twentieth-century four-pane sashes, all set beneath flat brick arches. The first floor has sashes with glazing bars, stone cills, flat brick arches and keystones. A dentilled eaves line is present, and two gabled dormers with side-sliding sashes rise from the hipped roof with ridge stacks.

At the east end of the rear wing, which runs parallel to the main block in an east-west direction, is a central sash with glazing bars set under a flat brick arch with stone cill. The first floor has a band and two sashes with glazing bars, flat brick arches and stone cills. A dentilled eaves line is present, and the roof is hipped with ridge stacks.

The interior contains many eighteenth-century fireplaces. The two most important rooms are the entrance hall and the saloon. The entrance hall features walls with plaster panels, swags and masks, a dentilled cornice and a coffered domed ceiling. A cantilevered staircase with fluted bulb and umbrella balusters rises from this space. The saloon is notable for its doors with broken pediments, walls with plaster panels and swags above the windows, and a large marble chimneypiece set beneath a broken pediment. A tall cornice runs around the room, and the ceiling is a deep cove with extensive plasterwork executed by Giuseppe Cortese. The saloon ceiling is a rough copy of an illustration in Isaac Ware's publication "The Plans and Elevations and Sections of Houghton in Norfolk" of 1735, while the entrance hall ceiling is similar to that of the north-west bedchamber at Houghton.