Barningham Park; Listed building (Barningham)

NZ 0810 BARNINGHAM BARNINGHAM PARK

15/12 Barningham Park

19.1.52

GV II*

Barningham Park, since 1690 the seat of the Milbank family, stands towards the east end of the village of Barningham {Ref 2}.

The house faces east and forms an L-plan, with a broad kitchen wing projecting east at the north end of the three-storeyed seven-bay main block. Externally the house is largely of 18th-century character, with the main block facade of c1720 except for the top floor added c1750. Indications in the fabric - in particular the use of long roughly-shaped angle quoins - suggests that the main block and its rear stair projection may be of 16th or 17th century origin, but the clearest evidence of older fabric is in the kitchen wing. Here the western part of the inner section of the wing appears to represent a house, or perhaps the cross-wing of a house, of 16th century (?) date {Ref 2}.

The surviving older features are now largely internal, although old quoining (quite similar to that at the rear of the main block) can be seen on the south side of the wing, along with fragmentary remains of earlier (mullioned?) windows alongside the present 18th-century sashes. The early structure seems to have measured c14 by 8m externally, over walls c0.90m thick, with a cross-wall set west-of-centre that contains a section of stone newel stair rising from the first floor to the attics. This stair has a small chamfered window (now internal), with a central iron bar, skewed through the wall in a manner that would seem to imply the former presence of an adjacent structure on the north. The main ground-floor room has a segmental-arched fireplace on the east, with a smooth tooling that clearly differentiates it from the 18th-century features of the range, such as the fireplaces of the adjacent kitchen (at a lower level) to the east; the roof above this part of the house retains an upper-cruck truss; in the east wall of the attic room here is a splayed recess, clearly a former window pre-dating the 18th-century eastward extension of the wing. The western end of the old block (beyond the cross-wall with the newel stair) has been given a later roof running north-south {Ref 2}.

Barningham Park is a complex house, and its earlier phases are difficult to interpret in detail; further research is needed. Whilst its oldest parts appear to be of a period when one might expect some degree of defensibility to be the norm, there is no clear proof of this.

Country House. North range and kitchen wing both late medieval or C16, extended in C18; main block and rear wing C16 or C17, remodelled c.1720 for Milbanke family and 2nd floor added mid-C18; south extension to rear wing early C19. Main block front squared stone, other walls coursed rubble; cut and tooled dressings and some quoins. Graduated Lakeland slate roof except for stone slates on rear wing extension. Main block facing east has central rear wing. Earlier north range and projecting double-span kitchen wing.

East elevation: Main block 3 storeys, 2+3+2 bays, symmetrical. Raised quoins to lower floors, 1st and 2nd floor strings, moulded eaves cornice. Central half-glazed door in rusticated surround has flanking pilasters with faceted rustication, triglyph frieze and segmental pediment with sunk panel. 12-pane sash windows to lower floors (renewed on ground floor) and renewed 6-pane sashes on 2nd floor, all in stepped stone surrounds. Coped gables; small corniced end stacks. Left return shows steps up to C19 French window on 1st floor, 2nd floor Diocletian window and pedimented gable.

Inner return of kitchen wing: 2 storeys, 2 wide bays; plinth, raised quoins at right. Older left bay has long roughly-shaped end quoins. Each bay has double Venetian window and two 12-pane sashes in stone surrounds above. Coped gable end on moulded kneelers; stepped-and-corniced ridge and right end stacks.

Rear main block: projecting wing has 2 round-arched 12-pane sashes with intersecting glazing bars, in stone surrounds with moulded imposts; pedimented gable with small corniced stack. Right l-bay extension with 9-pane sashes; on right return doorway in architrave under re-set C16/17 armorial panel. Left 2-bay north range; older right bay with long roughly-shaped end quoins. 12-pane sashes; roof hipped to left with 2 ridge stacks, one stepped-and- corniced.

2- and 3-storey north elevation has various glazing-bar sashes and a canted bay.

Interior: Entrance hall has acanthus cornice and segmental arch to stair. Library has cornice with acanthus and flower ornament. Open-well stair, stone to 1st floor, with shaped tread ends; stick balusters, turned newels, moulded ramped handrail. Drawing-room has elaborate cornice, partly restored. Fielded-panel doors and shutters throughout.

Original kitchen has C16 moulded beams and chamfered segmental-arched fireplace; doorway under corbelled lintel into C18 kitchen in added bay; segmental fireplace flanked by round-arched recesses; old beams with many hooks and fittings. Upper-cruck roof over older part of wing.

North range: older part has walls 1.0 metre thick; a section of stone newel stair survives with an original chamfered and barred window (now internal); a corbelled-out feature in a nearby cupboard may be part of an original fireplace.

Single-storey extension north of rear wing, and C20 garage block west of north range, are not of interest.

Listing NGR: NZ0862410213