Description

MIDDLETON ALKRINGTON HALL SD 80 NE ROAD NORTH 2/1 Alkrington Hall 15/3/57 G.V. II* House, now flats. 1735-6. By Giacomo Leoni for Darcy Lever. Brick with ashlar dressings and C20 tile and slate roofs. 9-bay 3-storey double-pile plan with single-storey 3-bay wings to either side. Classical style. A well composed elevation, the central 3 bays being slightly advanced and having giant Ionic pilasters above a rusticated stone ground floor. Otherwise the elevation is brick with rusticated quoins, first floor band and a coped parapet with recessed panels in the outer bays and balustrades in the inner above a cornice. Central door with overlight and dropped keystone with date and coat of arms below a pedimented window on the first floor. All the windows of the central 3 bays have stone surrounds whereas those in the outer bays have fiat brick arches, keystones and stone sills. Glazing bars have been removed from windows on all but the top floor and some of the side windows. The hipped roof has 2 ridge chimney stacks. Wings to either side of later elates. Semi-circular arched stair windows to each of the side elevations which retain elaborate lead rainwater heads and downpipes. Flat rear with 9 windows on each floor and a central pedimented door with coat of arms and pilasters. Interior: several of the rooms have been split by C20 partitions but much of the original deep relief plaster ceilings, stone flooring and timber fittings remains. One stair has a deep moulded rail on column-on-vase balusters, column newels and a cut string whereas the other, which is C19, has a swept rail, plain square balusters, a cut string and a wreathed stop to the rail. The house is an important and imposing example of Leoni's work. It is one of only a few which survive in the North-West of England. Victoria Country History of Lancashire, 1911.

Listing NGR: SD8659005179

External Links

• Wikidata Q17534375

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Recommended Books

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  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)