Description

TF 90 NE
5/5

CRANWORTH
Letton Hall

4.12.51

GV II*

Mansion converted into a Christian holiday, house party and conference centre.
1783-89 with major Victorian alterations.
Designed by Sir John Soane. Gault brick with some stone dressings and some colour-washed red brick to service wing. Slate roofs. Main block square in plan originally with lower services to west. Main block of 3 storeys with basement.
Entrance facade altered considerably during C19 by the replacement of the porch and the forward extension of the library. 3 bays. Very deep central porch mainly single storeyed, yet supporting on rear third a first floor advancement. Pair of unfluted Doric columns in antis (thought to be re-used from Soane's original segmental porch) with a full Doric entablature. Semicircular headed doorway with fanlight and a 2-leaf panelled door. Flat roof with a short parapet. First floor advancement has a tripartite sash window within a classical stone surround with cornice and central pediment on consoles. Balustrade above with the arch of Soane's recessed centre bay just visible behind.
Victorian single-storeyed advancement to east with a semicircular headed plate glass sash window and a flat roof. Original windows with glazing bars: recessed and semicircular at ground and first floor levels, rectangular beneath skewback arches to upper storey. Plain 3-header dentil cornice with a short stone parapet.
East facade of 5 bays with central 3 bays slightly advanced, supporting a pediment and reached by a flight of steps flanked by balustrades. Semicircular headed sash windows to ground and first floors, recessed in central 3 bays. Ground floor windows with Victorian plate glass, small top floor windows with skewback arches. Original windows with glazing bars. Victorian single-storeyed extension with a large Venetian French window formerly providing access to a conservatory. Doric entablature.
Services arranged around a courtyard to west with various later changes. South facade nearly symmetrical of 2 storeys and 10 bays. Slightly advanced end bays gabled to east only. Slightly advanced central 5 bays originally single-storeyed. End bay openings set within single semicircular heads, containing arches. Semi-circular headed ground floor windows with glazing bars. Upper windows mainly rectangular with skewback arches. Some windows blind.
Interior. Fine staircase of double apsidal plan with cantilevered stone treads and thin beaded wrought iron balusters with volutes supporting the swept handrail and the surprisingly abstract motif of an angled oblong to every other baluster. Several rooms with good plasterwork and some original chimney pieces survive.

Listing NGR: TF9715905872

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Letton Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q6533849

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)