Description

SE 55NW BENINGBROUGH BENINGBROUGH HALL

4/1 Beningbrough Hall

28.2.52

GV I Country house. Finished 1716. By William Thornton, plasterwork possibly by John Bagnall. For John Bourchier. House of red brick in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings and cumberland slate roof; pavilions of mottled pink brick in English garden wall bond with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs. House of double-pile plan with flanking screen walls linking it to pavilions; Baroque in style. House: 2 storeys with basement and attic, 11 x 5 bays. Symmetrical facade; central 3-bay break and flanking paired bays defined by alternately-raised quoin strips rising into band, above which large paired console brackets support deep moulded cornice with blocking course over break. 1st floor and ground floor bands. Central entrance bay has steps with later iron balustrade up to glazed doorway in architrave set between Doric pilasters supporting bold entablature with cornice, above which is cartouche with Bourchier cipher and knot flanked by horses emerging from drapery; 1st floor window above has eaved and shouldered corniced architrave with triglyph keystones and panel linking it to eaves band. Windows are 18-panes sashes with flat guaged brick arches and raised cill except for 20 pane sashes to basement and 8-pane sliding sashes to attic (some replaced by side casements). Hipped 2-span roof with central well and ridge stacks. Screen walls: have alternate recesses and projections, the latter with niches and balastrade; they turn at right angles to link house to pavilions. Pavilions: 2 storeys, 1 X 1 bays; symmetrical, having angle pilasters, keyed round arches to ground floor (blind to front and rear), impost bands, flat-arched lst-floor windows (blind to returns), dentil cornices, hipped roofs, leaded ogee-capped cupolas with ball and spire finials the left pavilion with bell, the right pavilion with wind clock. Rear: garden front of house: as front but with end bays breaking forward instead of centre; strong central emphasis given by elaborate doorcase with channelled quoins, attached Ionic columns supporting frieze and cornice the centre part recessed and with elaborate cartouche rising into segmental pediment; window above in eaved architrave with scallop keystone, cornice and blocking course; lead-covered blocking course over central bays. Mid C19 conservatory attached to left end has corniced orange-brick lower wall supporting wooden frame with flanked angle pilasters, frieze and cornice.

Interior: a very high standard of craftmanship is displayed throughout, most of the original work surviving with extremely fine wall panelling with carved over-doors and roundels, elaborate friezes and cornices, decorative ceilings, heavily moulded fireplaces with overmantels, panelled doors in architraves; the entrance hall has giant fluted composite pilasters, the saloon fluted Corinthian columns; particularly fine is the panelled stair hall with its cantilevered wooden stair with parquet treads, incorp- orating the Bouchier knot and monogram, and elaborately-carved balusters; the backstairs of good-quality ironwork; also of interest is the Elizabethan panelling in the attic rooms. For detailed description see The National Trust, Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire N Pevsner, Buildings of England, North Riding.

Listing NGR: SE5162258563

External Links

• Beningbrough Hall at Wikipedia
• Beningbrough Hall official website
• Wikidata Q4888052

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)