Gayton Hall is a

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire 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 Townhou ...

on Gayton Farm Road in Gayton,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, England. It was built in the 17th century and refaced in the following century. The house is constructed in brick with stone dressings, and has an Ionic doorcase. William of Orange stayed in the house in 1690. In the grounds is a

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot (Scots Language, Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house Domestic pigeon, pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or b ...

dated 1663. Both the house and the dovecote are recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as designated

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

buildings.

History

Gayton Hall was built in the 17th century, and refaced in the early 18th century. It was the home of the Glegg family. William of Orange stayed with William Glegg in the house on his way to Ireland in 1690. During the 20th century, the house was converted into flats and the stables into garages.

Architecture

The house is constructed in brick on a moulded stone base, and has stone dressings and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. It is in three storeys, and has a southwest front of nine

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

, the central three bays projecting forward. There are stone bands between the storeys,

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

on the corners, and at the top of the house is a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

and a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a 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/brea ...

. There is a central doorcase with engaged fluted Ionic columns and an open

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

with scrolls and in the seventh bay there is a projecting porch. The windows are

sashes A sash is a large and usually colorful ribbon or band of material worn around the human body, either draping from one shoulder to the opposing hip and back up, or else encircling the waist. The sash around the waist may be worn in daily attire, ...

with keystones, the windows on the lower two floors having 12 panes, and those on the top floor have 16 panes. The northwest face is in four bays, and contains similar windows. The southeast face has two unequal

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s, with

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s on the ground floor. At the rear the central two bays are recessed with gables, and contain casement windows. These are flanked on each side by three bays containing sash windows. Projecting from the left three bays is a single-storey kitchen wing with a first floor terrace and a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

. Inside the house are two Jacobean staircases with turned balusters and square

newel A newel, also called a central pole or support column, is the central supporting pillar around which a helical staircase winds. It can also refer to an upright post that supports or terminates the handrail of a stair banister (the "newel post") ...

s surmounted by ball

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

Dovecote

In the grounds to the north of the house is an octagonal

built in brick on a stone base with stone dressings. The entrance has flush quoins and a plain

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented/structural item. In the case ...

inscribed with the date 1663 and the initials "EG" (for Edward Glegg). There are two vertical bull's eye openings, one above the doorway, and the other at the rear. Inside there are nesting boxes for 1,000 birds.

Appraisal

The hall and the dovecote were both designated as

buildings on 15 November 1962. Grade II* is the middle of the three grades of listing and is applied to "particularly important buildings of more than special interest". Hartwell ''et al'' in the ''

Buildings of England The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...

'' series describe the southwest front as "handsome".

References

{{Reflist, 30em Country houses in Merseyside Grade II* listed buildings in Merseyside Grade II* listed houses

History

Architecture

Dovecote

Appraisal

See also

References