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

• Wikidata Q26560236

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Recommended Books

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)