Details
BURNLEY
SD8530 TOWNELEY PARK
906-1/7/141 Towneley Hall
10/11/51
(Formerly Listed as:
TODMORDEN ROAD
Towneley Hall)
GV I
Country house, formerly the seat of the Towneley family, now
museum and art gallery. Begun c1400, completed in quadrangular
form c1500; north-west wing rebuilt c1626, and widened by
additions to the outer side c1737; north-east gatehouse range
demolished in early C18; south-west hall-range rebuilt
c1725-6, and south-east wing remodelled in 1760s, and
remodelled again 1812-19 by Jeffry Wyatt (subsequently Sir
Jeffry Wyatville), who also added an external basement passage
and a porch to the front of the hall, and the turrets and
battlements; north-west tower added 1847. Mostly large
sandstone rubble brought to courses, with freestone dressings,
and hipped slate roofs concealed by embattled parapets. Now
largely Gothick style.
PLAN: U-plan formed by hall-range on north-west/south-east
axis with long north-west and south-east wings.
EXTERIOR: 2-storey great hall with 4-storey corner turrets,
3-storey north-west wing and 2-storey south-east wing all to
the same height except the turrets; with basements.
The hall-range and its turrets, 1:2:1 windows, symmetrical,
with a projected basement serving as a plinth, has four
2-light mullioned windows to the basement, a tall square
Gothick porch in the centre, protecting a heavy oak door
inscribed "R et AHSOISTA / TW FEC A DNI MdXXX" (believed to
have come from Standish Hall near Wigan) flanked by tall
18-pane windows with moulded surrounds, a clock face in the
centre of the upper floor flanked by square 3-light casements
with hoodmoulds, an embattled parapet, and 2 downspouts with
rainwater heads which have raised lettering "R T/1726"; the
projecting rectangular turrets both have mullioned 4-light
windows to the first stage and 8-light mullion-and-transom
windows above, all with hoodmoulds, those to the left with
small rectangular panes and those to the right with
diamond-lattice glazing, and the left turret also has a
blocked Tudor-arched moulded doorway at ground floor. Its rear
wall, 2 unequal storeys and 4 windows, symmetrical, with
raised regular quoining and a 1st-floor sillband, has a
central doorway with Gibbsian pilasters and an entablature
with triglyphs and a prominent cornice, now furnished with
full-height 21-pane sashed glazing; tall 18-pane windows at
ground floor and square 9-pane windows at 1st floor, all with
Gibbsian surrounds.
The south-east wing has a 3-storeyed 3-window facade to the
courtyard, of large roughly-coursed squared rubble: the ground
floor has an unusual elliptical doorway (blocked) offset
slightly right, apparently formed of re-used halves of a
former Tudor-arched fireplace lintel, 2 small 1-light windows
to the left and another to the right; the 1st floor has a
square-headed C15 window above the doorway with 2 cusped
lights, diamond lattice glazing, a deep cavetto-moulded reveal
and a hoodmould, a cross-window to the left and a small
1-light window; the 2nd floor has 3 cross-windows. Its end
wall, of 2 unequal storeys, has diagonal buttresses
terminating in turrets, early C19 masonry at ground floor
containing a large round-headed window flanked by blind
loop-lights, and a pair of 2-light windows at 2nd-floor level,
with hoodmoulds. The return side (to the garden), likewise 2
unequal storeys, 5 windows and symmetrical, has a very large
round-headed doorway and large round-headed windows at ground
floor, and C19 2-light mullioned windows at 2nd-floor level,
with round-headed lights.
The north-west wing, 3 storeys and 6 windows to the courtyard,
has mostly C19 mullioned windows at ground and 1st-floor
levels, but at 2nd floor it has C17 windows: two 8-light
mullion-and-transom windows, a cross-window between these and
2 similar cross-windows to the right; its wide end wall, with
remains of former quoining in the centre of the ground floor,
has two C19 mullioned windows on each floor.
INTERIOR (principal features of interest only): great hall
with exceptionally fine Baroque plasterwork by Francesco
Vassali and Martini Quadri, 1725-30; contemporary cantilever
staircase off south end of hall, with wrought-iron balustrade
by Robert Bakewell of Derbyshire; early C17 long gallery in SE
wing with muntin-and-rail panelling, and painted lettering
identifying former family portraits, and 4 chambers on outer
side of this with C17 and C18 panelling; C17 staircase off
north end of hall; C17 kitchen in NW wing with 2 large arched
fireplaces, and early C19 range and associated ironmongery
including spits; early C17 dining room with unusual diagonal
panelling; early C16 chapel (relocated in early C18 addition
to this wing from former gatehouse wing), with carved oak door
and richly-moulded beams, containing extremely fine early C16
Flemish carved altarpiece (installed in late C18).
Listing NGR: SD8543730858
