| Description | Walton Hall, Walton.
'Country house, now hotel, c1768 (Pevsner p536). Ashlar, stone slate roof. 3 storeys with basement. Classical style. Double pile. 8 bay symmetrical facade. Plinth. Facade divided 2 1 2 1 2 by giant channelled pilaster strips with the centre 4 capped by shallow pediment. Central doorway set between the 4th and 5th bays has elaborate double doors with architrave and carved on lintel a relief sculpture of an otter with a trout in its mouth (the Waterton crest). Early C19 3 bay Tuscan single storey porch in front of the 2 centre bays. 2 pane sash windows with raised surrounds, eared to ground and 1st floor windows. Cornice and blocking course. Tympanum of pediment has carved achievement of arms with motto 'BETTER KYNDE FREMB THAN FREMB KYEN' (the Waterton family). Hipped roof with one ridge stack between 5th and 6th bays. Rear: U shaped with 2 bay projecting wings. 6 bays. Central gabled porch set between tall round headed stair windows. Left wing obscured by modern extension. Right wing has Tuscan porch and doorway with architrave to left of Venetian window with plain sash windows above. 2 stacks to ridge, 2 to left wing, one to right wing. Left hand return of 5 bays. 2 bays nearest front have some windows as front, other bays have plain raised surrounds. Right hand return has single storey outshut slightly set back with quoin pilaster strip: basement at lake level has 3 segmental arched boat entrances (now windows) 9 bays of sash windows. Hipped roof.
Interior: oak panelled entrance hall probably reused from earlier house on the site with elaborate Jacobean carved oak over mantel. Stair hall has C19 cantilevered 3 storey open well staircase with turned balusters. Landings at each floor level have original doorways with architraves, fluted friezes, dentil cornice and 6 panel doors with raised and fielded panels. The stair window has wooden fluted surround with imposts and rusticated stone voussoirs, the keystone carved with the Waterton crest in relief. The outshut has 5 bay fish bone king post roof with hip and windlass formerly for lifting goods from basement. Spectacularly sited on an island.
The C19 home of the famous explorer Charles Waterton who created perhaps the earliest bird sanctuary in Britain on the island'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 11/04/1973. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1135579. Web site accessed 17/12/2013).
Walton Hall was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Colum Giles in 1978 as part of the WYAS/RCHME Rural Houses Survey. The photographic images and sketch plan produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Giles, C. (WYAS). 1978). There is also a set of photographic images attributed to Colum Giles, 1981 (Giles, C. (WYAS). 1981). The 1978 field work report is transcribed below:
'This is a stone house, built in 1767 68 (Pevsner). It is of three storeys, and has assumed a 'U' shape on plan.
The main front is to the east. It is of nine bays, the central five bays projecting to support a shallow pediment; this latter displays the family arms. The porch, with Doric columns, is probably an addition of the early 19th century. The windows have eared surrounds. |