Description

BURNLEY

SD8530 TOWNELEY PARK 906-1/7/141 Towneley Hall 10/11/51 (Formerly Listed as: TODMORDEN ROAD Towneley Hall)

GV I

Country house, formerly the seat of the Towneley family, now museum and art gallery. Begun c1400, completed in quadrangular form c1500; north-west wing rebuilt c1626, and widened by additions to the outer side c1737; north-east gatehouse range demolished in early C18; south-west hall-range rebuilt c1725-6, and south-east wing remodelled in 1760s, and remodelled again 1812-19 by Jeffry Wyatt (subsequently Sir Jeffry Wyatville), who also added an external basement passage and a porch to the front of the hall, and the turrets and battlements; north-west tower added 1847. Mostly large sandstone rubble brought to courses, with freestone dressings, and hipped slate roofs concealed by embattled parapets. Now largely Gothick style. PLAN: U-plan formed by hall-range on north-west/south-east axis with long north-west and south-east wings. EXTERIOR: 2-storey great hall with 4-storey corner turrets, 3-storey north-west wing and 2-storey south-east wing all to the same height except the turrets; with basements. The hall-range and its turrets, 1:2:1 windows, symmetrical, with a projected basement serving as a plinth, has four 2-light mullioned windows to the basement, a tall square Gothick porch in the centre, protecting a heavy oak door inscribed "R et AHSOISTA / TW FEC A DNI MdXXX" (believed to have come from Standish Hall near Wigan) flanked by tall 18-pane windows with moulded surrounds, a clock face in the centre of the upper floor flanked by square 3-light casements with hoodmoulds, an embattled parapet, and 2 downspouts with rainwater heads which have raised lettering "R T/1726"; the projecting rectangular turrets both have mullioned 4-light windows to the first stage and 8-light mullion-and-transom windows above, all with hoodmoulds, those to the left with small rectangular panes and those to the right with diamond-lattice glazing, and the left turret also has a blocked Tudor-arched moulded doorway at ground floor. Its rear wall, 2 unequal storeys and 4 windows, symmetrical, with raised regular quoining and a 1st-floor sillband, has a central doorway with Gibbsian pilasters and an entablature

with triglyphs and a prominent cornice, now furnished with full-height 21-pane sashed glazing; tall 18-pane windows at ground floor and square 9-pane windows at 1st floor, all with Gibbsian surrounds. The south-east wing has a 3-storeyed 3-window facade to the courtyard, of large roughly-coursed squared rubble: the ground floor has an unusual elliptical doorway (blocked) offset slightly right, apparently formed of re-used halves of a former Tudor-arched fireplace lintel, 2 small 1-light windows to the left and another to the right; the 1st floor has a square-headed C15 window above the doorway with 2 cusped lights, diamond lattice glazing, a deep cavetto-moulded reveal and a hoodmould, a cross-window to the left and a small 1-light window; the 2nd floor has 3 cross-windows. Its end wall, of 2 unequal storeys, has diagonal buttresses terminating in turrets, early C19 masonry at ground floor containing a large round-headed window flanked by blind loop-lights, and a pair of 2-light windows at 2nd-floor level, with hoodmoulds. The return side (to the garden), likewise 2 unequal storeys, 5 windows and symmetrical, has a very large round-headed doorway and large round-headed windows at ground floor, and C19 2-light mullioned windows at 2nd-floor level, with round-headed lights. The north-west wing, 3 storeys and 6 windows to the courtyard, has mostly C19 mullioned windows at ground and 1st-floor levels, but at 2nd floor it has C17 windows: two 8-light mullion-and-transom windows, a cross-window between these and 2 similar cross-windows to the right; its wide end wall, with remains of former quoining in the centre of the ground floor, has two C19 mullioned windows on each floor. INTERIOR (principal features of interest only): great hall with exceptionally fine Baroque plasterwork by Francesco Vassali and Martini Quadri, 1725-30; contemporary cantilever staircase off south end of hall, with wrought-iron balustrade by Robert Bakewell of Derbyshire; early C17 long gallery in SE wing with muntin-and-rail panelling, and painted lettering identifying former family portraits, and 4 chambers on outer side of this with C17 and C18 panelling; C17 staircase off north end of hall; C17 kitchen in NW wing with 2 large arched fireplaces, and early C19 range and associated ironmongery including spits; early C17 dining room with unusual diagonal panelling; early C16 chapel (relocated in early C18 addition to this wing from former gatehouse wing), with carved oak door and richly-moulded beams, containing extremely fine early C16 Flemish carved altarpiece (installed in late C18).



Listing NGR: SD8543730858

External Links

• Wikidata Q17530440

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