Kirkbridge House, Stanwick Old Hall And Attached Gate Piers

Kirkbridge House, Stanwick Old Hall and Attached Gate Piers

A farmhouse, now converted into two dwellings, with attached gate piers. Built in the mid to late 17th century with alterations made in the early 18th century, it was constructed for the Smithson family. The building is constructed of rubble with some ashlar dressings and has stone slate roofs.

The house is planned in a U-shape, comprising a main range of two storeys with a loft, and lower wings extending to the rear.

The south elevation displays a rhythm of 2:1:4:2 first-floor windows. The elevation features quoins, first- and second-floor string courses running across its length. From left to right, the first and second bays contain sash windows with glazing bars and exposed sash boxes set within 18th-century ashlar architraves. The third bay has a cross window on each floor within an architrave, and at ground-floor level a 17th-century door in a quoined ashlar surround with moulded arris. The fourth to seventh bays inclusive have chamfered cross windows—three on the ground floor and four on the first floor—with a 20th-century panelled door to the right at ground level. The eighth and ninth bays repeat the pattern of the first and second. Four full dormers with shaped kneelers and ashlar coping project from the roof. Corniced ashlar chimney stacks are positioned at the ends of the main range and between the third and fourth bays.

The rear elevation shows a six-panel door in a quoined ashlar surround with moulded arris on the left, its lintel renewed with triangular soffit and hoodmould. To the right of this door is a three-light chamfered mullion window with hoodmould, and on the first floor above the door a similar window, with a 20th-century casement window and a single-light window to its right on each floor. A central full dormer with pierced kneelers rises from the roof.

The east wing features chamfered rusticated quoins, shaped kneelers and ashlar coping to its gable. Its lower section includes a blocked doorway to the left, a two-light chamfered mullion window, and two single-light chamfered windows with hoodmoulds in the gable. The west wing is built in two sections with an M-shaped roof. Its eastern half contains an ashlar architrave to a blocked window with two stanchions to the right, a chamfered single-light window with hoodmould to the left, and above it a single-light window in architrave with the remains of a hoodmould above. In the gable to the right is a chamfered single-light window with hoodmould and a chimney on the gable itself. The western half has two two-light chamfered mullion windows on the ground floor and a corniced ashlar gable stack. The right return of the east wing displays two tall two-light mullion windows with hoodmoulds. The left return of the west wing contains a door of three vertical panels in a chamfered rusticated quoined surround, its lintel carved to resemble voussoirs, flanked by 20th-century casement windows with hoodmoulds.

Between the rear wings stands a low wall punctuated by three gate piers. The two central piers are square in plan with chamfered rusticated quoins, chamfered bases, cornices, caps and ball finials. The pier to the right is also square in plan with chamfered rusticated quoins, a cornice and acorn finial. The quoined detailing throughout lines through and matches the quoins on the wings.

The left return of the main house contains two single-light windows with ashlar architraves set within its gable. The right return has a blocked single-light window at first-floor level, and in the gable two keyed vertical oval oculi with chamfered surrounds.

Internally, the hall contains a 17th-century oak open-well staircase with thick turned balusters of symmetrical design and large knob finials to the top and bottom of the newel posts; this staircase was positioned without regard to the fenestration. To the west is a splat baluster staircase. A ground-floor room to the far left retains early 18th-century bolection-moulded panelling with round-arched cupboards flanking a bolection fireplace.

Historical context: The house is documented in Samuel Buck's Yorkshire Sketchbook (Wakefield Historical Society, 1979, p 364), where it is shown behind the now-demolished larger Stanwick Hall.