Description

HOVINGHAM CHURCH STREET
SE 6675
(west side)
8/102 Hovingham Hall
25.1.54
GV I
Country house. c1750-1774 with additional C19 servants' wing. By Thomas
Worsley VI for himself. Craftsmen included Jonathan Rose the plasterer;
John Devall Junior who provided an Ionic chimney-piece; Moss, Kelsey and
West joiners; Jelfe the mason; Abbott the painter and Lawrence the
woodcarver, all of whose names appear in Thomas Worsley's accounts held at
Hovingham. Limestone ashlar, Westmorland slate roof. L-shaped on plan with
riding school providing substantial entrance wing, flanked by stables to
south, C19 addition to east of north range. Based on design for town house
by Palladio; balancing south-west wing never built.

Garden facade: spinal range with cross wing to left. 2 storeys with
basement and attics. Spinal range symmetrical 9-bay facade with return for
unbuilt south wing to right forming tenth bay. Central pedimented 3-bay
pavilion breaks forward slightly. Plinth and faced rustication to blind
arcade of ground floor. Double-leaf half-glazed door beneath fanlight
flanked by inserted 8-pane fixed windows. Central keystone bears
inscription: 'Pro viribus non pro votis erexit T.W.' First-floor band
carries blind balustrade. Rusticated blind arcade. Venetian window flanked
by plate-glass sashes in eared architraves. Doric frieze with bucrania and
paterae in metopes. Oculus to pediment. Flanking sections each have blind
arcade of rock-faced rustication containing half-glazed door beneath
original lunettes flanked by inserted 8-pane fixed windows. First floor:
unequal 9-pane sashes in eared architraves, those to right smaller than
those to left. Moulded eaves course. To right: gabled return bay has 6-
panel door beneath overlight with 2 fixed windows above. Ridge and eaves
stacks. Staircase dome to left at junction with north wing. North wing: 3
bay pedimented pavilion to west facade, 6 bays to return. 2 storeys. West
facade: rock-faced plinth carrying continuous sill band to sashes with
glazing bars in architraves with canopies. First floor: sashes with glazing
bars in architraves. Diocletian window to pediment. Return facade: 6 bays,
that to left being part of the pavilion is taller and breaks forward. To
left bay: 2 basement windows in rock-faced plinth carrying continuous sill
to sash with glazing bars in architrave with canopy. To right: 2 basement
windows to left. Plinth and rock-faced rustication to blind arcade of
ground floor containing sashes with glazing bars, the central one in former
position of main entrance. First floor: sashes with glazing bars in moulded
architrave to left bay. Casements in keyed architraves to right bays.
Ridge stacks.
Street facade: pedimented gable end to street. 2 storeys, 3 bays with
curved flanking walls. Rock-faced stone to both storeys and flanking walls,
ashlar to pediment. Tall keyed carriage arch rising through 2 storeys with
impost band, flanked by keyed sashes with glazing bars to ground floor and
keyed 6-pane sashes to first floor. Band above bears motto 'VIRTUS IN
ACTIONE CONSTITIT'. Plain pediment with oculus flanked by dragon acroteria
and surmounted by cornice stack. The ramped flanking walls terminate in
square-section piers with ball finials, and carry continuation of impost
band.

Interior: the main entrance to the house has always been through the riding
school, a unique arrangement. Tripartite round-arched arcades to each end
with grisaille paintings above to east end and windows to ballroom balcony.
School lit by 3 large elliptical-arched tripartite windows at first-floor
level to each side. Double-leaf doorway beneath fanlight at west end leads
to Samson Hall, originally a carriageway to the forecourt beyond, flanked by
stables. This arrangement was found to be impractical and by 1778 these
3 rooms had been converted to halls. All have quadripartite vaults held on
Tuscan columns. The Samson Hall is floored in hexagonal oak blocks suitable
for carriages. The drawing room in the north wing is the former entrance
hall and has a tripartite Corinthian colonnade of painted plaster and Doric
fireplace. Dining room, originally State bedroom, with fluted Corinthian
colonnade and Ionic fireplace. Early C19 wrought-iron open well staircase,
beneath dome painted in 1830s with a copy of Guido Reni's "Aurora". Ionic
room: overhanging entablature with anthemion frieze supported by fluted
Ionic columns of scagliola, now painted over. Coved ceiling with guilloche
and waterleaf enrichment. Ballroom: square-on plan, plain with Ionic
frieze. East doorway leads to balcony giving on to riding school. Green
room: originally 3 bays, now subdivided. Baseless Doric columns with egg-
and-dart abacus.

Country Life, 4 February 1905; Country Life, 10, 17 December 1927; Country
Life, 15 June 1961; Hussey C, English Country Houses: Early Georgian, 1955;
Pevsner N, Yorkshire: The North Riding, 1966; Worsley G A, "Thomas Worsley:
An Eighteenth Century Amateur Architect", unpublished dissertation, Oxford
University, 1982; Worsley Sir Marcus, Hovingham Hall, York, (Guidebook),
1984.

Listing NGR: SE6662775673

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Hovingham Hall at Wikipedia
• Hovingham Hall official website
• Wikidata Q5917233

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6