Description

SE 3212 and SE 3213 WOOLLEY WOOLLEY PARK

1666/7/141 Woolley Hall

14.2.52

GV II*

Large country-house, now residential college. c1675 with later C17 and C18 additions. Hammer-dressed stone, ashlar dressings, stone slate roof. H-shaped house c1635 with added east wing mid C18 later extended c1800 when rear projecting bay, new entrance porch and service ranges to east were added. 2 storeys with basement and attics and 3 storeys. South entrance front: quoins. Deeply indented facade has 5 main elements: ABCBA. A, set forward from B, has single bay of C19 sash windows with plain stone surrounds with 4-light flat-faced mullioned window to basement; B, set forward from C, has 2 bays of C18 sash windows with plain stone surrounds. Continuous dripcourse. A and B have shaped coped gables with spike finials and 2-light double-chamfered mullioned attic windows to apex. C: 3 bays, central doorway with Gibbs surround, windows either side altered to French windows. Open porch, c1800, has balustraded balcony carried on 2 pilasters; sash windows to 1st-floor, embattled parapet. Added to right of east wing c1800, 7-bay 3-storey extension with sash windows. Rear (North front): central full-height 3-storey canted bay with tall arched sash windows to ground floor and rectangular sashes above. Flanking wings have tripartite sash with plain sashes above to 3 floors. Linking embattled parapet. Outer wings have single bay of sash windows to each floor and shaped gables. Left-hand return, (West front): 9-bay facade, central 3 bays breaking forward under shaped gable with an achievement of arms. 1st three bays mid C18. All have sash windows. Embattled parapet. Right-hand return: (East front) U-shaped. Central block and gabled wing to left retain C17 fenestration with some windows with double-chamfered surrounds, mullioned originally now with small-paned sashes. C17 attic dormer has coped gable and finial. Interior: largely remodelled 1807. Large open stair-hall to designs by Charles Watson executed by Thomas Shuttleworth c1807-8; C18 Neo-Classical fireplace probably moved from library, has engaged Roman Ionic columns, frieze with carved tablet decorated with arts of reading; 5 doorways leading off have architraves and 6-panel mahogany doors with astragal mouldings; imperial staircase supported on Tuscan columns and Ionic columns at 1st floor, cantilevered wooden stair, cast-iron balustrade and ramped handrail. Former dining room has Neo-Classical fireplace, possibly from Hickleton Hall (information Peter Brears), apsidal end with 3 elliptical-headed windows and panelled surround; paired doorways at opposite end have carved frieze and cornice of great similarity to ones at Bretton Hall (q.v.) by John Carr; Edwardian plaster ceiling. Library has fireplace with eared surround. Billiard room has C18 fireplace with fluted frieze decorated with urns. Drawing room: c1807; dado, door and window architraves have chain decoration; double mahogany doors; fireplace has fluted Doric columns and steel and brass fittings. Formerly decorated with wall paintings by Agostino Agio. Roof: 4-bay hall has king-post roof; East wing has 6-bay notched-collar truss roof.

The seat of the Wentworths.

Buck (p135) illustrates the house c1720 substantially as it is today; facsimile Samuel Buck's Yorkshire Sketchbook, Wakefield (1979). Authoratively discussed by George Markham, Woolley Hall, The Historical Development of a Country House, Wakefield 1979. Pevsner, Yorkshire West Riding (1974) p558. D. Linstrum, West Yorkshire Architects and Architects (1978), p47-49.

Listing NGR: SE3271013096

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Woolley Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q8033850

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)