| Description | Arthington Hall is a country house of unknown date surrounded by park landscape. Its present fabric mainly dates to an early 18th century rebuilding of an earlier house. It was altered and extended in the later 19th century.
The house is built of coursed dressed sandstone and has a slate roof. It is irregular in plan with its principal element being a rectangular front range. It is of two storeys, in a classical style with a symmetrical façade, with a five bay central section projecting slightly from the main building.
The former porch was replaced with a single storey ashlar conservatory with pilasters separating its large windows which fill each bay (except for the central bay which contains the entrance door).
The house has a hipped roof of low pitch with two ridge chimneys (English Heritage, 2007).
The principal feature of interest in the interior of the house is an oval stairwell (see WYAS photographs in file) to the rear of the entrance hall, which has in the centre an unusual wooden flying staircase with open string and slender turned balusters and handrail which carry round the landing surrounding the central well. Above the landing is a domed ceiling with a central skylight (English Heritage, 2007). The date of the staircase is unknown, although the lower part of the staircase and entrance hall suggest 1760s or early 1770s (Worsley, 2000).
Harriet Clark in 1795, Amelia Clark in 1796 and Elizabeth Chives in 1805 all record John Carr’s involvement at Arthington. This must have been for Thomas Arthington who inherited the Arthington estate in 1750 at the age of 24. The history of the house remains obscure. Its plain exterior and proportions do not suggest Carr but the interior makes it clear that at least part of the present house is his work (Worsley, 2000).
The Hall is a grade II listed building.
(See also North Park (PRN 1432) and Fish Pond Close (PRN 1379).
In 2013 a planning application and listed building consent application was submitted for alterartions to the Hall. As such, a pre determination survey of the building was made, a copy of which is on file in the HER (Think Architecture And Design, 2013) |