Listed Building: Cotterstock Hall and attached outbuildings (17/57)

Country house. Datestone N/J.M./1658 for John Norton altered, early C18 and staircase added mid C19. Squared coursed limestone with ashlar facades and Colleyweston slate roofs. Originally probably H-shape plan, now no north-east wing. 2 storeys with attics and basement. Entrance front, to south, is of 5 bays with flanking bays breaking forward as gabled cross wings. Central 2-storey porch also breaks forward with recessed attic storey and gable above. Central arch head doorway with keyblock. Flanking console brackets, carrying a semi-circular overthrow, with arms of Viscount Melville. Inner 6-panel door. Pairs of C18 sash windows, with glazing bars, and plain architraves with keyblocks, to ground floor of flanking wings. Plain apron below each window. 3-light, ovolo-moulded, stone mullioned windows with transoms and cavetto-moulded eared architraves, to first floor of porch, ground and first floor left of porch and first floor of flanking wings. Similar 3-light stone mullion windows to attics of flanking gables, and to basement. Blocked windows to right of porch and to return walls of flanking wings. Chamfered plinth. String course, with set back, between ground and first floor. Flat-roofed porch has stone balustrade with square section balusters and ball finials at the corners. Central scroll gable has square-head doorway, with eared architrave, opening into flat roof of porch; blind oval lozenge above has datestone. Wooden roof dormers, flanking porch, have leaded casements and curved gablets with ball finials. Ashlar gable parapets with ball finials at apex and eaves. Ashlar ridge stacks with moulded cornices. Square panels in apex of gables, that to left is a sundial. Elevation to left of entrance front is of 6 bays: 4-window range of 2-, 3-and 4-light stone mullion windows, some with transoms, similar to entrance front. 4-light staircase windows, to left of centre, have square-head doorway below. Central gable has 3-light stone mullion attic window. String course with set back and ashlar gable parapets with ball finials, all similar to entrance front. Elevation, to right of entrance front, is similar, of 4 bays with a pair of C18 sash windows to right, similar to entrance. 3-light attic window above. Rear elevation, all in similar style, has projecting gabled cross-wing to right. Central C19 staircase projection has tall stone mullion window and 2 reset oval lights. 3-light stone mullion window to first floor left, with transom. Wall, attached to left of main front, has ashlar coping and forms rear wall of rectangular range of single-storey outbuildings. Rear elevation has 4-window range of 2-light stone mullion windows. Central arch-head doorway and plank door to right. Lean-to roof. Interior; entrance hall has early C18 triple arcade on right, with wooden Tuscan columns, originally open to the Hall. Similar arcade originally existed to left. Staircase of 1857 has turned balusters rising around an open well. Hall to right of entrance has limestone fireplace c1658 with pulvinated frieze, eared and bolection moulded surround and moulded cornice. The Morning Room in the south-east wing has a fireplace with eared surround, flanking scrolls and central carved floral panel. Room in south-west wing not inspected but noted as having fireplace with bolection moulded surround. Room to left of entrance hall not inspected but noted as having early C18 fireplace with bolection moulded surround, probably of Alwalton Marble, and late C17 panelling. Kitchen in north-west wing has large open fireplace with segmental arch head. Staircase to far left of entrance is c1658 with closed string, straight flights with doglegs, turned balusters and panelled newels. Chamfered beams throughout. First floor rooms not inspected but 4 rooms noted as having C17 fireplaces, with moulded stone surrounds, also panelling. South-west attic room not inspected but noted as having reset C17 scratch moulded panelling. This room is said to be where the poet John Dryden stayed when visiting the house in 1698 and 1699. The house was occupied by the Norton family until about 1693 when it was sold to Elmes Steward, it then passed to John Rose in the C18 and C.P. Berkley in early C19 and was bought by Jane Dowager Countess of Westmorland in 1843. Her relative the third Viscount Melville completed the staircase in 1857. (RCHM: An Inventory of Architectural Monuments in North Northamptonshire: p40; Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: p160)

Record last edited

Dec 9 2021 10:01AM