Description

ULVERSTON

SD2878 STOCKBRIDGE LANE
626-1/3/137 (South side (off))
11/04/86 Stone Cross Mansion

II

Formerly known as: Stone Cross School STOCKBRIDGE LANE.
Country mansion, now used as offices and factory. 1874. Said
to be by Paley and Austin, but drawings by JW Grundy of
Ulverston survive. Coursed rock-faced limestone with Hexham
freestone quoins and details. Complex slate pitched roofs with
asymmetrically-placed corniced and plinthed stacks.
Gothic/Scottish Baronial style. Complex plan based around a
central rectangular block. Main elevation faces east.
3 storeys with full and roof dormers. Asymmetrical; 11 window
bays with entrance bays 7 and 8 set back within a 3-arched
porch which has a central gablet, pierced parapet, and
clustered shafts to columns. Porch breaks forward from central
5-storey tower in bay 6, a machicolated and crenellated square
structure with a bowed oriel window of 3 lights to the 1st
floor. Bay 1 has a canted 3-light bay window; bay 3 has a
3-light flat window with decorative lintel; between bays 9 and
11 a quoined gable stack has decorative quoins incorporating
courses above and below the 3rd storey.
The garden elevation to the south is of 3 storeys and 10 bays.
Bays 1-3 and 8-10 have 3-light square windows to ground level.
A canted central 2-light window is set within a dressed stone
bay which breaks forward from the main elevation. All the
windows are sashed with quoined surrounds. The north-east
corner has a gableted apex with shaped jagged gable ends
containing stacks. Many later additions and alterations.
INTERIOR includes original decorative highly moulded and
detailed window frames with Gothic-carved panelling, marble
fireplaces with tiled metal surrounds, coffered ceilings, and
tiled encaustic mosaic floors. The lavish High Victorian
Gothic hall has a marble columned arcade, corbelled wall
brackets to a glazed ceiling, and a 1st-floor balustrade. The
first flight of the Imperial staircase has been removed but
the returned half-flights survive. On the first floor of the
hall 3 oil-on-canvas paintings of Romantic Gothic Revival
scenes, signed L Besche 1880. Other notable features are
leaded lights and panelled doors. The surface and capitals are
lavishly embellished with foliate and floral casing to blind
arcading with quadripartite vaulting.
(Robinson JM: A Guide to the Country Houses of the North-West:
London: 1991-: 242).

Listing NGR: SD2812678342

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26560236

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2