Description

SD 85 SE MARTONS BOTH GLEDSTONE ROAD
(east side)

1/110 Gledstone Hall including
forecourt walls,
pavilions and gates
(formerly listed
as Gledstone Hall)

GV II*

Large house now in multiple occupation, 1922-6 by Sir Edwin Lutyens for Sir Amos
Nelson. Sandstone ashlar (from Salterforth) and Cotswold stone slates. Two
storeys, but with an unusually tall and prominent roof. A double pile with centre-
piece and end pavilions, linked by flank walls to separate lodge pavilions which
define the forecourt. The entrance front is of thirteen bays, each end pavilion
being a single bay. The central three come forward as a pedimented portico,
distyle is antis, with arched side walls. Consoled doorway. The windows are
all casements set in sunk vertical panels, with small panes below and large above.
The garden front is of eleven bays on a similar arrangement, but without the
central break, there being only a pediment and a consoled doorcase. From the
second to the fourth, and the eighth to the tenth bays there are single-storey
colonnades of Doric columns in antis. To either side, against the rear walls
of the service blocks, there are single-storey pedimented garden features, tetra-
style with central arches breaking the base cornice.
The forecourt is rectangular, with fine ornamental wrought iron gates at the
north end (the overthrow carrying the Nelson arms). These are flanked by four
large piers carrying urns. Similar piers flank the side entrances and are suggested
by rusticated bands on the walls of the kitchen and garages which come forward
of the main house. The kitchen is marked by an arched Vanbrughian chimneystack.
Minor piers carry balls. Wing walls run to two lodges or pavilions, each two
storeyed with pyramidal roofs and central chimneys. One window and door (with
consoled pediment) on the outer face, one window below and two above on the inner
face.
Interior: The circulation areas are heavily articulated to give a greater effect
of space. Entry is to a Doric columned vestibule with rusticated lintels, and
much of the northern side of the ground floor is taken up with a vaulted passageway
which has a floor of white and black inlaid marble. Off this opens a stair in
the same material, of three open flights under a large elliptical arch. The
centre of the south side is a further Doric hall with green marble columns and
a similar floor. The remaining rooms are simple, with heavily moulded ceilings
in circular patterns. That to the right of the hall has a fireplace of dark
green and white marble. One of the last houses of its size to be built from
new by Lutyens, foreshadowing his Middleton Park, Oxfordshire. It has been called
"one of his finest and most sensitive houses".
Daniel O'Neill: Sir Edwin Lutyens: Country Houses, 1980, p144.

Listing NGR: SD8868551277

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Gledstone Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q15221742

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)