Sutton Hall

Sutton Hall is a house, now converted into time-share apartments, dating from around 1700, with alterations in the 19th century, early 20th century, and again in the 1960s and 1980s. It is constructed of brown sandstone ashlar with grey ashlar dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof. The building is two stories high and has a symmetrical facade of seven bays, with the central three bays recessed and a three-bay block projecting forward on the left.

The left-hand projecting block has steps leading to a central French window. The facade incorporates a chamfered plinth, rusticated quoins, cavelto-moulded architraves, a first-floor and eaves band, and a modillion cornice. The central bay contains a 20th-century glazed door with glazing bars, set within an eaved architrave featuring a keystone and pulvinated frieze, and a pedimented porch with a similar architrave above. A keyed bulls-eye window is situated above the door on the first floor. The windows are generally 18-pane sashes, though some are 20th-century 18-pane casements flanking the porch and unequally-hung 15-pane sashes on the ground floor of bays 4, 5, 9 and 10. The roof is hipped with rendered stacks.

The right return side features four bays, including a truncated ballroom on the right which was formerly a projecting feature, now with a projecting ground-floor bay. This bay has two tall unequally-hung 15-pane sashes in keyed architraves on the ground floor, a French window, and a 12-pane sash above. The main central bays each have a doorway with an architraved window above. The left bay has projecting bays on both floors, a smaller one on the first floor, with Tuscan pilasters and two 12-pane sashes to each floor.

Inside, the ballroom (located at the rear right) has an egg-and-dart-moulded dado rail, an 18th-century Adamesque palmette frieze to two walls, a Venetian-style niche with decorative-panelled cupboards below glass-fronted cabinets, and a panel-soffited beam. The central entrance and stair hall features a wooden open-string staircase with a ramped moulded handrail, fluted newel posts, and two carved balusters per tread, with the balustrade extending to a first-floor gallery. The front rooms on both floors have panelled dados and wall panelling; the first-floor room on the right has fluted pilasters supporting the moulded cornice and a bolection-moulded fireplace surround to a later cast-iron ogee-arched grate.

Sutton Hall was the seat of the Smyth family until 1766, when they acquired Kirby Knowle Castle. Historical documents relating to the house are held on site.