Description

BURNLEY

SD8530 TOWNELEY PARK
906-1/7/141 Towneley Hall
10/11/51
(Formerly Listed as:
TODMORDEN ROAD
Towneley Hall)

GV I

Country house, formerly the seat of the Towneley family, now
museum and art gallery. Begun c1400, completed in quadrangular
form c1500; north-west wing rebuilt c1626, and widened by
additions to the outer side c1737; north-east gatehouse range
demolished in early C18; south-west hall-range rebuilt
c1725-6, and south-east wing remodelled in 1760s, and
remodelled again 1812-19 by Jeffry Wyatt (subsequently Sir
Jeffry Wyatville), who also added an external basement passage
and a porch to the front of the hall, and the turrets and
battlements; north-west tower added 1847. Mostly large
sandstone rubble brought to courses, with freestone dressings,
and hipped slate roofs concealed by embattled parapets. Now
largely Gothick style.
PLAN: U-plan formed by hall-range on north-west/south-east
axis with long north-west and south-east wings.
EXTERIOR: 2-storey great hall with 4-storey corner turrets,
3-storey north-west wing and 2-storey south-east wing all to
the same height except the turrets; with basements.
The hall-range and its turrets, 1:2:1 windows, symmetrical,
with a projected basement serving as a plinth, has four
2-light mullioned windows to the basement, a tall square
Gothick porch in the centre, protecting a heavy oak door
inscribed "R et AHSOISTA / TW FEC A DNI MdXXX" (believed to
have come from Standish Hall near Wigan) flanked by tall
18-pane windows with moulded surrounds, a clock face in the
centre of the upper floor flanked by square 3-light casements
with hoodmoulds, an embattled parapet, and 2 downspouts with
rainwater heads which have raised lettering "R T/1726"; the
projecting rectangular turrets both have mullioned 4-light
windows to the first stage and 8-light mullion-and-transom
windows above, all with hoodmoulds, those to the left with
small rectangular panes and those to the right with
diamond-lattice glazing, and the left turret also has a
blocked Tudor-arched moulded doorway at ground floor. Its rear
wall, 2 unequal storeys and 4 windows, symmetrical, with
raised regular quoining and a 1st-floor sillband, has a
central doorway with Gibbsian pilasters and an entablature

with triglyphs and a prominent cornice, now furnished with
full-height 21-pane sashed glazing; tall 18-pane windows at
ground floor and square 9-pane windows at 1st floor, all with
Gibbsian surrounds.
The south-east wing has a 3-storeyed 3-window facade to the
courtyard, of large roughly-coursed squared rubble: the ground
floor has an unusual elliptical doorway (blocked) offset
slightly right, apparently formed of re-used halves of a
former Tudor-arched fireplace lintel, 2 small 1-light windows
to the left and another to the right; the 1st floor has a
square-headed C15 window above the doorway with 2 cusped
lights, diamond lattice glazing, a deep cavetto-moulded reveal
and a hoodmould, a cross-window to the left and a small
1-light window; the 2nd floor has 3 cross-windows. Its end
wall, of 2 unequal storeys, has diagonal buttresses
terminating in turrets, early C19 masonry at ground floor
containing a large round-headed window flanked by blind
loop-lights, and a pair of 2-light windows at 2nd-floor level,
with hoodmoulds. The return side (to the garden), likewise 2
unequal storeys, 5 windows and symmetrical, has a very large
round-headed doorway and large round-headed windows at ground
floor, and C19 2-light mullioned windows at 2nd-floor level,
with round-headed lights.
The north-west wing, 3 storeys and 6 windows to the courtyard,
has mostly C19 mullioned windows at ground and 1st-floor
levels, but at 2nd floor it has C17 windows: two 8-light
mullion-and-transom windows, a cross-window between these and
2 similar cross-windows to the right; its wide end wall, with
remains of former quoining in the centre of the ground floor,
has two C19 mullioned windows on each floor.
INTERIOR (principal features of interest only): great hall
with exceptionally fine Baroque plasterwork by Francesco
Vassali and Martini Quadri, 1725-30; contemporary cantilever
staircase off south end of hall, with wrought-iron balustrade
by Robert Bakewell of Derbyshire; early C17 long gallery in SE
wing with muntin-and-rail panelling, and painted lettering
identifying former family portraits, and 4 chambers on outer
side of this with C17 and C18 panelling; C17 staircase off
north end of hall; C17 kitchen in NW wing with 2 large arched
fireplaces, and early C19 range and associated ironmongery
including spits; early C17 dining room with unusual diagonal
panelling; early C16 chapel (relocated in early C18 addition
to this wing from former gatehouse wing), with carved oak door
and richly-moulded beams, containing extremely fine early C16
Flemish carved altarpiece (installed in late C18).

Listing NGR: SD8543730858

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17530440

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

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version