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Description: Field House

Address: Field Hall Field House And Chapel Upper Field House Lane Triangle Sowerby Bridge Calderdale

Grade: IISTAR

Group detail: Dean Lane (west side, off), Sowerby

Full description:
(Formerly listed on Upper Field House Lane). House. 1749 for George Stansfield, probably with later additions. Ashlar, stone slate roof. Palladian style. Main block of double-pile plan, 2 storeys with basement and 11 bays has short, central rear wing linking it to parallel kitchen range. South-east (entrance) front: 2:2:3:2:2 bays, outer bays set back and possibly added later (1845 OS Map shows gap between Field House and Old Hall (qv)), central 3 bays breaking forward under pediment. Rusticated basement and quoins; ground-floor band. Flight of steps with balustrade leads to central doorway which has C20 part glazed door and fanlight in double architrave with pulvinated friezes, cornice and segmental pediment. Windows are sashes in architraves with corbelled cills, pulvinated friezes and cornice. Modillion eaves and pediment cornice. In tympanum, Stansfield coat of arms (3 rams with lion crest) flanked by foliage. Roof hipped over central block and outer bays. Corniced stacks to ends and ridge. Rear: main block has 4-light flat faced mullion windows, transomed on ground floor. Right return: main block in style of front: 3 bays, central bay breaking forward slightly under pediment. Plinth: rusticated quoins. Steps up to central door, part-glazed with etched glass, in architrave of Tuscan columns supporting classical entablature with blocking course and lion. Windows as front: Modillion eaves cornice. In tympanum, lion crest and motto "Know thyself". Kitchen range, set back on right, has a C16 Perpendicular style transomed 5-light pointed-arch window. In front of this are 2 columns which support a cupola-style bellcote with tripled columns and finials. These two features were brought from St Peter's Church, Sowerby, when it was rebuilt in 1762 (Whites p473). The inner courtyard front of the kitchen range has a doorway on left with 4-light window above and a 9-light window to its right (partly blocked) by a brick lean-to) with an 11-light window above, all windows with flat faced mullions. Interior of main block: entrance hall: Tuscan tetrastyle in antis carries full entablature returned around room, fireplace with C18 eared architrave, floral decorated panel to frieze, entablature, and later poly-chromatic tiles and grate within, C18 inner surround; overmantel has swept, eared architrave with goat standing on keystone. Corridor: lozenge slated floor; 6-panel doors in moulded architraves with entablatures; dentil cornice; oval light-well at right end; fire stair at left end. Stair: curved round with moulded handrail and stick-on-vase balusters, clustered at curtail; Venetian stair window with etched glass, Ionic columns and modillion cornice; 1st-floor modillion cornice, floral frieze and central decorative ceiling plasterwork. 1st floor: corridor: 6-panel doors in less-elaborate architraves apart from that to lobby at right end which has shouldered architrave with console pediment; light-well has balusters as stair and coved rectangular skylight; cornice. Good fireplaces in front bedrooms. Interior of kitchen range: left room a barrel-vaulted pantry with stone shelves; central room has two keyed arched recesses at rear and a stone sink; right room has three similar recesses with cupboards in outer two and range in central one. H P Kendall, "Antiquarians at Sowerby. A Pleasant Ramble", (Halifax Antiquarian Society, Vol 1 (1902, Saturday June 7th). (White's Directory, 1847).