From ''Morris's Country Seats'' (1880) Swithland Hall is a 19th-century Neoclassical

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

Swithland Swithland is a linear village in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. The civil parish population was put at 230 in 2004 and 217 in the 2011 census. It is in the old Charnwood Forest, between Cropston, Woodhouse and Woodhouse ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, designed by James Pennethorne .

History

The present Swithland Hall was built for George John Danvers-Butler, later

Earl of Lanesborough Earl of Lanesborough was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1756 for Humphrey Butler, 2nd Viscount Lanesborough. The Butler family descended from Theophilus Butler, who represented County Cavan and Belturbet in the Irish House ...

. Designed by the architect

James Pennethorne Sir James Pennethorne (4 June 1801 – 1 September 1871) was a British architect and planner, particularly associated with buildings and parks in central London. Life Early years Pennethorne was born in Worcester, and travelled to London in 1 ...

, it was complete enough to be occupied by 1834, and was finished by 1852. The house replaced an earlier one on the estate. T.R. Potter recorded in his ''History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest'' (1842):

The residence of the owners of Swithland was, till the present generation, situated near the Church. It was a considerable pile, but so surrounded on all sides, even in front, by stables, dovecotes and high walls, and so close to the public road, that the present proprietor has judiciously pulled it down, and erected on a higher ground a mansion more suited to the taste of the age.

It is built of stuccoed and painted granite and slate rubble and brick, with Swithland slate roofs concealed by a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

. It consists of a central block and two wings in a restrained neo-classical style with banded rustication to the ground floor. It has two storeys, with a sunken basement. The entrance front has one-storey porch with four paired fluted

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

columns up four stone steps. The house was

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1979.

References

External links

* http://www.vintage-views.com/eshop/product.php?productid=16701 Grade II listed buildings in Leicestershire {{Leicestershire-struct-stub