The Palladian House at Nostell Priory

 

The Palladian house at Nostell Priory

Back in 1999, following a survey of the stonework at All Saints church in Pontefract, for Ed Dennison, I was asked by the architect, Peter Gaze Pace, to advise on sandstones that I thought would be suitable for an extensive of programme of restoration to its tower. 

 

The front elevation

Having discovered that Ackworth Rock from Brackenhill had been used for previous repairs in isolated areas, I visited Wakefield to look at the stone where it had been used in the extension to the magistrate’s court and Nostell Priory, where Pevsner mentions that it had been used. 

 

Restored windows photographed in 1999

On that occasion, I had a very good look at the stonework of the house, noting its uniformly muddy brown/grey colour and its good condition throughout. The only surprise was that a few window surrounds on the front elevation had been restored using a yellowish sandstone instead of Ackworth Rock, which was available from Brackenhill Quarries. 

 

The rear elevation

The original Palladian style house was built from 1736 to 1750, for Sir Rowland Winn, 4th baronet, with James Paine being appointed at the age of 19 as the clerk of works. This was Paine’s first professional job, but it is thought that the original design was by Colonel James Moyser, based on Palladio's Villa Mocenigo – an assertion that is discussed by Frances Sands in her PhD thesis. 

 

The 5 bay centre of the east elevation with giant Ionic columns

 

Sir Rowland Winn, 5th baronet, commissioned Robert Adam to complete the original house, from 1765-1776, with some alterations including the raised terrace at the front of the house and the addition of a north wing from 1779-1780.

 

The Winn family crest on the pediment to the front elevation

 

In 2022, having spent the afternoon exploring the Nostell Priory estate after first visiting Foulby and Wragby and St. Michael's church, I had seen the exterior of the main house from various angles, as well as the pavilion that is attached to the house by a colonnade, but I just took a few general record photographs. 

 

The pavilion

 

One interesting feature of the external fabric is a three storey high section of what looks like part of an older stone and brick building on the site, which has been incorporated into the C18 house; however, I have been subsequently informed that this is where building work ceased in around 1785 following the death of the 5th Baronet, although it seems strange that no attempt has been made to applying a proper finish to the masonry.

 

A section of unfinished masonry

The only time I stopped to look at the stonework in any detail was to briefly examine the masonry surrounding the restored southernmost window to Robert Adam’s terrace, where the sandstone has been reddened in a manner that is normally associated with an intense fire. 

 

Fire reddened masonry

 

Although I had seen the interior before, which is best known for its decoration and its world famous collection of furniture by Thomas Chippendale, taking advantage of the free entry I had a very quick wander around the interior of the house; however, I didn’t see much of interest to this Language of Stone Blog and made my way back to Doncaster Road to catch my bus back to Wakefield, after a thoroughly enjoyable day out - taking 578 photographs and walking for more than 10 km.

 

An exploration of the area around Nostell Priory

  

The Mediaeval Quarry at Nostell Priory

 

A detail of trough cross-bedding

Having had a good wander around the grounds of Nostell Priory to photograph various buildings for the British Listed Buildings website, on the approach to the summer house I was interested to see an exposure of very thinly bedded sandstone alongside the path. 

 

An exposure of thin bedded sandstone

Continuing down into the gardens, further small exposures soon turned into a distinct vertical rock face and it became obvious that I was entering an old quarry, which I later discovered was transformed into a menagerie in 1743. 

 

A general view

 

The Building Stones Database for England map explorer shows that several quarries worked the Ackworth Rock around Brackenhill/Ackworth Moor Top and, when examining St. Michael’s church and various historic buildings on the Nostell Priory estate, I could readily identify this sandstone. 

 

The Building Stones Database for England map

 

The quarry was designated as a Local Geological Site by the West Yorkshire Geology Trust (WYGT) back in 2012 and, according to their site description, the Augustinian priory (c.1130) was probably built from sandstone from this quarry. 

 

The mediaeval quarry shown on ther LIDAR map

 

The LIDAR map shows that the quarry was quite substantial and the geological memoir records it as showing 15 feet of fine grained and wedge bedded sandstone in the measures between the Shafton Marine Band and the Ackworth Rock. WYGT further describes it as being fine-grained, pale grey and yellow in colour and containing cross-bedded sets, with erosive scours being common at the bases. 

 

Thinly bedded sandstone and silty sandstone

There is nothing left of the priory buildings and although, in my 1967 edition of the Buildings of England West Yorkshire Riding, Pevsner notes that “Mr Pace tells me that many stones, carved and moulded, are stored in outbuildings,” as far as I am aware, it is not possible to observe the characteristics of this masonry. 

 

Trough cross-bedded sandstone and silty sandstone

Looking at one part of the old quarry, two old faces form a right angle and the trough cross-bedded sandstone is overlain by very thin beds of silty sandstone that is differentially weathered and would not be very suitable for building. 

 

A detail of trough cross-bedded and silty sandstone

Since alighting from the No. 496 bus at Foulby a few hours before, I had encountered several things that interested me as a geologist: handmade bricks made from local clay, many examples of the use of Ackworth Rock as a building stone – a formation that I was not very familiar with - and various sedimentary structures. 

 

A detail of silty sandstone

 

WYGT describes the quarry as an ideal site for educational groups to observe sandstones and their features and, added to the above, I am sure that it would be appreciated by members of the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, but I am not sure that the National Trust would allow group visits to the garden, when the general public are normally charged £8 each. 

 

A section of silty sandstone

 

From one of the quarry faces where the rock was loose, I was able to obtain a sample that is fine grained, brown/grey in colour with iron staining and Liesegang rings adding orange/brown colour variations. It is also thinly bedded and very small grains or white mica are clearly visible on several exposed bedding planes. 

 

A sample of thinly bedded sandstone

 

At the southern entrance to the Menagerie Garden is the Gothick Arch, which was probably built at the same time as the menagerie and is made of a very poor quality rubble sandstone that I suspect was taken from the quarry at the time. 

 

Highly weathered sandstone in the Gothick Arch

 

The minor Coal Measures sandstones very often contain a considerable quantity of silt and these are usually only suitable for very basic walling stone, with limited massive sandy beds that could be used for well squared walling and dressings.

 

Weathered sandstone in the Gothick Arch

 

A Brief Exploration of the Nostell Estate

 

The Gothick Arch

By the time that I finished looking around St. Michael’s church, it had been more than 2 hours since I had alighted form the No. 496 bus in Foulby and I still had 17 buildings on my list to photograph for the British Listed Buildings website, which were spread out around Nostell Priory.

 

Listed buildings in the estate yard

 

A cluster of these once formed part of the early Victorian estate yard for Nostell Priory laid out for Charles W Winn (1795-1874), but they have since been refurbished and converted into offices at the Nostell Estate Business Park. 

 

The Monk's Refectory in 1999

The exception to this is the Grade II* Listed Monk’s Refectory, which Historic England states is a “farm building of uncertain former function, but perhaps refectory or lodgings to former Nostell Priory. Perhaps C15, altered in C17 or C18.” When I first visited Nostell Priory as part of a consultancy project at All Saints church in Pontefract, back in 1999, it was in quite a dilapidated state, but a lot of its masonry has since been restored with stone that I presume is from the Brackenhill Quarry. 

 

The Monk's Refectory in 2022

 

Although the gated entrance to the business park was open, I was very aware that I really had no right to be wandering around this private estate. Being a Saturday and nobody around at the estate office to ask permission to take photographs, I just took a few general photos of various former farm buildings at a distance, along with the kennels and brick built estate office, before and continuing towards the stables. 

 

Former farm buildings in the Nostell Estate Business Park

 

The buildings that form the estate yard are all of much better quality than would usually be expected from stone built farm buildings and look like they would have been designed by an architect, but Historic England makes no mention of this. 

 

The stables

The Grade I Listed stables had already been photographed for the British Listed Buildings website and, after taking a couple of record photos that recorded the east and north ranges by James Pritchett and Charles Watson of York (1827- 1829), I headed north to the next building on my list. 

 

The National Trust map of Nostell Priory and its grounds

 

The Grade II* bridge and boat house is described by Historic England as being built in the C18 but, according to the Gardens Trust Blog, was built in accordance with Stephen Switzer’s design of 1732 by John Winn, who inherited the estate in 1805 after the death of Rowland Winn, the 6th Baronet, in 1805.

 

Views of the bridge and boat house

 

The Grade II* Listed Obelisk Lodge (1776) by Robert Adam is in the form of a narrow pyramid, which is pierced by a round-headed archway and framed by a massive Tuscan doorcase, with a screen wall on either side. 

 

The Obelisk Lodge

Although I hadn’t got near enough to the stables to look closely at the stonework, all the agricultural buildings that I had seen in the estate yard had the same pale muddy brown colour that I seen in the boundary walls and St. Michael’s church and I didn’t have any reason to think that anything but the local Ackworth Rock from Brackenhill/Ackworth Moor Top had been used. 

 

A detail of the masonry in the screen wall

 

I had noted various bedding structures and clay iron nodules that are quite usual in the Coal Measures strata, but the weathering of the soft sandstone blocks in the screen wall to the east of the arch reveals soft sediment deformation, which is typically found in fine silty sands. 

 

Views in the courtyard of the stables

Retracing my steps back to the stables, I had a very quick look around the courtyard, including the south and ranges by (1770-1176) by Robert Adam. I didn’t get down on my hands and knees to take a closer look, but I was interested to see that the riven sandstone paving had moulds and casts of burrows, which show that the flagstones have been laid down not only on their natural bed but also upside down. 

 

Moulds and cast of burrows in flagstones

 

After photographing the fountain and statue in the garden to the rear of the stables, I made my way down to the Middle Lake and went to find the later C18 Gothick Arch, where the soft grey/brown sandstone used for the rubble masonry is highly weathered.

 

The Gothick Arch

 

Arriving at the Menagerie, a rendered handmade brick summer house, which is probably dated to the later C18 and perhaps by Robert Adam, according to Historic England, I was very surprised to discover that this has been built in an old quarry.

 

A limestone urn in the Menagerie Gardens

 

Returning to the path that runs alongside the Middle Lake, I stopped in a few places to get  views of Nostell Bridge, of which I could only take photos from a very limited vantage point, when I had diverted from my walk from Foulby to Wragby much earlier in the day.

Nostell Bridge

St. Michael's Church in Wragby - Part 2

 

The chancel

After a quick look at the exterior of St. Michael’s church in Wragby, before going inside the church, I had a wander around the churchyard to photograph the Grade II Listed Hollings, Hammond, Calverley and Crawshaw, Nettleton and Cruse monuments, which date from 1679 to 1741 and I thought were mainly of interest for their styles of letter cutting. 

 

The south door

Entering the porch, the late Perpendicular Gothic style of the Tudor period is evident in the pointed four centred arch to the south door of the church, which has very weathered headstops; however, I was more interested to see what the Ackworth Rock looked like, in a sheltered position. 

 

A detail of Ackworth Rock in the porch

 

The cross-bedding and the generally uniform pale muddy grey/brown colour is quite evident and, when entering the church, I could immediately see that the stone used in the south and 

north arcades and the walling and clerestory is very similar in colour.

 

The south arcade

 

Having discovered that the church website provides no information about it history, I went in search of a church guide, but found nothing for the tourist whatsoever. With the church being on the edge of Nostell Priory, which is very popular with tourists, this is very surprising and a great contrast to St. Lawrence’s church in Eyam, where there is a well stocked bookstall. 

 

A view east along the nave

 

Moving into the nave and looking east, there is no variation in the octagonal columns and the masonry rising to the clerestory on both sides comprises large ashlar blocks that are laid in quite regular courses and the windows are all identical. 

 

The north arcade and clerestory above

 

Although well proportioned and elegant, for me, one of the attractions of visiting old churches is to see variation in the styles of the columns, their capitals and the mouldings to the arches and the effect here is a bit monotonous – as I have also experienced at large churches such as Rotherham Minster and the Church of St. John the Baptist in Tideswell, which are essentially built in the Perpendicular Gothic style. 

 

A capital in the north arcade

Continuing to the east end of the church, the same simple detailing without any decorative carving is seen in the chancel arch and the three bay arcades to the north and south chapels. It is therefore surprising to see that the arches from the aisles to the chapels have headstops in the form of very crude figures that are quite incongruous. 

 

Headstops on the arches to the north and south aisles

In the south chancel wall, there is a very weathered panel of Permian dolomitic limestone that Pevsner described as unrecognisable but, because of its round arches and the style of figures, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) attributes it to the C12. 

 

A Romanesque panel in the chancel

 

Although the subject is not really appropriate to this Language of Stone Blog, the highlight of my visit was the internationally renowned collection of Swiss stained glass panels, ranging in age from the C16 to C18, which were acquired 1828-1829 by Charles Winn but there is no mention of them anywhere in the church. 

 

Panels of Swiss stained glass

Returning to the nave to look at the tower arch, just below the roof timbers, there is a distinct change in the masonry that can be seen in the both the colour and the difference in the surface finish of the stone blocks. An old roofline is also visible and this would confirm the assertion by Peter Ryder, in the Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire, that the tower dates to the C14.

 

A change in masonry styles and an old roofline

 

Before leaving the church, I stopped to photograph the Norman font, which was brought to Wragby from Auburn, a village on the Holderness coast of the East Riding which was lost to the sea. I didn’t notice this at the time, but it is made of Jurassic oolitic limestone and only part of the font is decorated with a chevron pattern, which the CRSBI suggests is for reasons of economy and that it would have been originally set against a wall.

 

The Norman font