Description

PANNAL KILLINGHALL ROAD
SE 25 SE (west side, off)
Beckwithshaw
7/58 Moor Park

GV II

Country house. 1859 by Andrews and Delauney for James Bray. Coursed
squared gritstone and ashlar, graduated grey slate roof. In a flamboyant
classical-Jacobean style of 2 storeys and 5 x 4 bays with a recessed bay to
right facing east. Central 3-storey tower with central 8-panel double doors
with fanlight flanked by paired Ionic columns supporting an entablature
carrying an openwork balustrade, oriel window above and 3 round-arched
lights to each side to top storey. Bracketed cornice and openwork
balustrade. This central bay is ornamented with relief mouldings of
strapwork, vermiculated ashlar and Classical motifs. Bays 2 and 4 have
round-arched windows, the outer bays have mullion and transom windows of 4
lights, in 2-storey canted bay to left. The roof line is decorated with
Dutch-style gables. 3 fluted stacks to rear of ridge, bays 1 and 5; an
ornate octagonal cupola with round-arched openings and ogee-roof to right.
The left return (facing south) has 2-storey canted bay windows to bays 1 and
3; bay 4 is flanked by attached octagonalshafts and, like bay 1, has a Dutch
gable. Interior: the small entrance lobby opens into a fine staircase hall
with polychrome floor tiles; the massive cantilevered staircase of 2
straight flights with gallery has Jacobean style arcaded balusters; the
hall ceiling is coved and decorated with strapwork plaster panels. The
ceiling is glazed, with the glass painted in yellow and black. The ground-
floor south and east rooms have massive 4- and 6-panel doors in doorcases
decorated with Classical motifs and strapwork; a fine stone fireplace in the
south room is decorated with a lion crest and angels and has a marble
mantelshelf. Ceilings have remains of deep moulded cornices and main rooms
have wooden architraves to the windows. The tower is lined with pine
boarding and has turned balusters. First floor and attic rooms also retain
original ceiling cornices, fireplaces and cupboarding. The main rooms
divided by partitions at the time of resurvey. James Bray was an iron and
brass founder from Leeds who obtained the contract for building the Leeds
and Thirsk (1849) and the Wharfedale Railways. He bought the Moor Park
estate of 227 acres in 1848 and completed the house at a cost of ?8,000. In
1869 the estate was sold to Joseph Nussey MP, a Leeds woollen manufacturer
and in 1882 it was bought by Dr and Mrs Williams. It remained with the
Williams family until c1950. Unoccupied at time of resurvey. The central
tower with round-headed windows and the balustrades are in the style of the
campanile at Osborne House, Queen Victoria's Marine Residence on the Isle of
Wight, completed in 1850 and a great influence on the villas and country
houses of the period. Harrogate Advertiser June 29, 1974; L Popplewell
Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors of North England 1830-1914, c1970.

Listing NGR: SE2584453224

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26583712

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)