Description

BISHOP AUCKLAND

NZ22NW HOWLISH LANE, Coundon
634-1/5/128 (South side)
21/04/52 Howlish Hall

GV II

House, now nursing home. c1700 with extensive late C18
additions and alterations, plus C19 east billiard room and
west wing.
MATERIALS: painted ashlar and render with painted ashlar
plinth, quoins and dressings. Welsh slate roof with brick and
ashlar chimneys.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys except for one-storey billiard room. East
front 2:3:3 windows. 2 bays of double-span original house
visible at left, obscured at right by C19 addition. Extruded
porch in angle has canted entrance with ramp up to 8-panel
double doors and plain overlight in architrave. Each return of
porch has a single 2:4-pane sash in architrave with cyma recta
cornice. Above, original build has 6:6-pane sashes in
architraves. Projecting late C18 addition has windows similar
to those of porch and 4-pane sashes above in corniced
architraves. First 3 sashes in wide, 2-storey canted bay, then
3 further sashes adapted as top-hinged casements on the ground
floor.
Block gutter brackets to roof of original build, which has
moulded kneelers to double gable on left return with flat
stone coping continuing over central valley parapet.
Lower-pitched hipped roof over late C18 part, with hipped
projection over canted bay; behind this the roof of the first
build has been raised to flat roof at ridge level. Hipped
roofs to C19 rear wings. Chimneys on first build gables are
brick with ashlar plinth and cornice; others on ridges and at
rear are brick with brick cornices.
Left return has 3 tall windows to billiard room at rear,
double gable has one 4-pane sash on each floor of left bay.
Right gable has C19 canted bay window on ground floor and
blocked window on first floor. C19 addition blank on this
side. Rear elevation shows C18 Venetian stair window over
c1900 porch with Art Nouveau detail.
INTERIOR shows much original detail of each period, including
2- and 6-panel doors, dado rails, plain corniced
chimneypieces, door architraves. Most room cornices lost, but
some may survive behind suspended ceiling. Staircase in C17
part has moulded grip handrail on turned balusters, much
renewed but gallery original; fire screen inserted behind
gallery; Venetian window has pilasters and architraves. C17
roof accessible from C19 flat-topped addition and shows
crossed principal rafters holding ridge purlin; one original
collar each truss, some additional later collars. One level of
purlins.
Conyers Surtees gives Hopper family as early owners, purchase
in 1808 by David Crawford of Newcastle, in 1848 by Sir William
Eden, and in 1924 the property of Messrs Bolckow, Vaughan and
Co.
(Surtees H C: History of the Parish of Coundon: Mainsforth:
1924-: 8).

Listing NGR: NZ2423228812

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26580327

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

• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)