Description

SE 51 SW, SE 51 SE,
10/102

OWSTON,
OWSTON VILLAGE,
Owston Hall: Flats 1-5 and including The Old Hall

05.06.68

(all formerly listed as Owston Hall)

II*

Country house now 6 dwellings and partly unoccupied. Early C18, extended
1794-5 by William Lindley for Brian Cooke. Ruled cement render, Westmorland
slate roof. L-shaped house of 1794: 2 storeys with basements, 1 : 3 : 1-bay
entrance front with 1 : 3 : 1-bay garden front on left return adjoined on
left by a mid-late C19 conservatory built on a basement range; to rear, the
L-shaped earlier C18 three-storey wing encloses a courtyard entered from
archway to rear of right return with single-storey outbuildings set in a
quadrant forming link from archway to the 1794 range. Entrance front: deep
band above exposed basement walling. Centre, set slightly forward,
approached by stone steps with large side pedestals; central doorway with
glazed double doors and fanlight with radial bars flanked by side lights
beneath decorated frieze and segmental pediment; flanking windows, set
between giant Ionic pilasters, have sunken apron panels to large sashes with
glazing bars; windows of outer bays similar. 1st floor: central sash with
glazing bars has fan-shaped sill brackets and architrave, sashes to other
bays have projecting sills only. Continuous eaves cornice and plain frieze
to central 3-bay pediment. Hipped roof with stacks set to rear of ridge and
to ridge of left return. Garden front: central curved projection with 6-pane
sashes to basement and deep sill band to unequally-hung 15-pane sashes; outer
bays have sashes as front but set in round-arched recesses; 1st-floor windows
as front. Conservatory to left (by Messenger and Co. of Loughborough, est.
1854) has possibly earlier yellow-brick plinth wall with band and sill band;
polygonal central projection approached by nosed stone steps with wave-form
iron balustrade; plain greenhouse glazing. Rear: (entrance front of earlier
C18 wing, 'The Old Hall'): 5 bays; central doorway with sidelights beneath
pedimented cornice. Sashes with glazing bars to ground and 1st floors;
tripartite sash over door; 6-pane sashes to 2nd floor. On its left a curtain
wall incorporates remains of C16/C17 windows, further round on left return is
a basket archway into the courtyard.

INTERIOR: diamond-shaped paving to entrance hall; mahogany doorcases with
garlanded friezes; plaster wall panels. Fluted Corinthian screen to stair
hall, cantilevered stone staircase with wreathed handrail to wave-form iron
balustrade; tripartite sash to stair window with pilasters and fanlight with
radial glazing bars; landing arcading. Front-right room (dining room, now
subdivided) has marble fireplace and arched recesses with drops of vines;
deep frieze with baskets of fruit. The Library, oval and lit from curved
bay on garden front, has 2 curved 6-panel doors with beading and roundels;
glazed bookcases between with lozenge-shaped lights; ornate frieze. In rear
wing (within earlier C18 range): another fine room (the old library) now
subdivided but with crinoidal limestone fireplace and contemporary iron
firebasket, cornice and coving. Basement retains a wooden pump with lead
plaque dated 1832; furnaces nearby probably of same date.

Surviving drawings for the 1794-5 addition to Owston (Davies-Cooke
Collection) bear the name Lindley and show alternative entrance doorways.
Previous attribution to William Porden (e.g. Pevsner p. 389) comes from an
unexecuted design exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1797. Humphry Repton's
1792/3 landscape scheme for Owston (photo-facsimile in NMR) shows a proposed
site for a new house some way to the west for which drawings were prepared by
Lindley in 1794; the plan outlines the L-shape of the 'old house' retained by
Lindley in the final scheme. In 1827 a proposal to alter Owston in the
Grecian style was submitted by P. F. Robinson to P. D. Cooke, this and an
extension scheme by Woodland and Hurst were never executed.

Drawings and very detailed building records in the Davies-Cooke Collection,
Doncaster Library Service Archives, King Edwards Road, Balby.

N. Pevsner, B.O.E., 1967 ed.

Listing NGR: SE5500111090

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537807

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy