Description

GRIMSBY

TA2707NE WEELSBY ROAD, Weelsby
699-1/37/142 (South side)
16/12/97 Weelsby Hall

GV II

Country house, now children's home. 1890 by L Maples for
George Frederick Sleight. Red brick in English bond with stone
dressings. Welsh slate roof.
PLAN: approximately rectangular on plan, with 2-room and
3-room main fronts and a large central staircase hall.
STYLE: Italianate.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with 3-storey tower to south entrance
front. Symmetrical south front of 5 irregular bays has central
projecting bay with entrance porch and tower, flanked by
narrow single recessed bays and projecting gabled outer bays.
Moulded plinth, first-floor band, sill bands and string
courses linking window heads. Central and outer bays have
broad angle-pilasters. Arched ashlar porch with 3 pairs of
double marble columns carrying round arches forming a short
tunnel vault, the front with a pulvinated frieze, keyed arch
with ornate carved spandrels, moulded cornice and balustrade
with ball finials to the corner piers. Carved panels to porch
sides. Steps to panelled double doors beneath fanlight.
Flanking bays have narrow 1/1 sashes beneath segmental arches
with keyed and eared architraves. Canted bay window to left
wing, rectangular bay window to right wing, both with three
1/1 sashes in pilastered surrounds with keyed arches,
entablatures with moulded cornices, and balustraded parapets.
First floor: central segmental-headed 1/1 sash in eared
architrave, narrow 1/1 sashes to recessed bays similar to
ground floor, wings with 3 sashes similar to ground floor but
with central round-arched ashlar panels above, carved as blind
radial fanlights. Overhanging eaves with wood cornice and
corniced gutter carried on bracketed modillions, the gabled
wings with open pediments incorporating a dentilled brick
raking cornice.
Tower has central round-headed sash and oeil-de-boeuf windows
in keyed architraves, angle pilasters with carved ashlar
panels, panelled frieze, modillioned ashlar cornice and
balustrade with stone and brick corner piers, 3 carrying
pyramidal finials, the front right corner with a small square
turret with round-headed windows with strapwork tracery
beneath a pyramidal spire with a wrought-iron finial. Hipped
and gabled roof. Lateral and ridge stacks with divided shafts
and corniced caps matching the eaves cornice.

Right return, of 6 irregular bays with projecting gabled
section to left of centre, has similar windows and details to
south front, and a projecting chimney-breast with a carved
stone relief panel with a shield bearing initials GFS.
Left return, of 5 irregular bays, has projecting 4-bay section
to left with central projecting gabled bay, similar details to
main front.
Rear has side wings with projecting lateral stacks, pedimental
gables, attic dormers.
INTERIOR: retains many original features. Inner entrance has
glazed and panelled screen with coloured leaded lights and a
pair of keyed round arches carried on pink marble columns.
Entrance-staircase hall has polychrome tiled floor and
panelled pine ceiling; wooden staircase, carried on columned
arcading, with carved pulvinated string, column balusters and
newels; first-floor landing with 4-bay north gallery arcade of
marble Corinthian columns with keyed round arches, the
keystones serving as corbels for hammerbeams with arched
braces and carved pendants carrying an elaborate roof with a
raised central section with arched braces and a large roof
light. Between the hammerbeams is a painted frieze with
cornucopias and urns. The south side of the landing has a
glazed screen to the tower staircase in a marble and ashlar
surround with Corinthian pilasters, half-glazed panels and
door in an elaborate carved wood surround with radial
fanlights, the leaded glass panels with paintings depicting
the Seasons. The main 4 ground-floor rooms have highly ornate
marble chimneypieces, carved wood overmantels and overdoors,
moulded cornices and ceiling roses. The ground-floor
south-west room has a delicate painted frieze, ceiling and
overdoor panel with flowers and musical instruments. Other
ground and first-floor rooms have good marble chimneypieces
and grates.
HISTORY: GF Sleight (later a baronet) was one of Grimsby's
greatest fishing magnates, with interests in all processes of
the industry, including a fish-curing factory in Sidebottom
Street (qv).
(Grimsby - Action for Conservation: Grimsby Borough Planning
Department: List of buildings of local architectural or
historical interest: Grimsby Borough Council: 1972-: NO.36).

Listing NGR: TA2794807949

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26660121

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)