Listed Building: Laxton Hall and attached steps and balustrade (1276360)

Country house, now a residential home. Probably late C18, possibly by W.D. Legg of Stamford for George, third Baron Carbery. Enlarged and remodelled 1806-9 by Humphrey Repton and William Carter with internal works by George Dance the younger, Francis Bernasconi and Westmacott; for George Freke Evans. Modified mid C19 for George, Seventh Baron Carbery. Squared coursed limestone with ashlar facades and Welsh slate roof. Double pile. 2 and 3 storeys with basement. Entrance front of 9-window range. Centre 3 bays break forward with a pediment over; originally an open porte cochere, enclosed mid C19. Central, panelled, door with bracketed pediment over. C19 sash windows with moulded stone architraves. Plain pilasters between bays are proud of the cornice line. The return walls of the porch are similar one and a half bays. The half bay adjacent to the main range formed part of the original porte cochere. The 3-window ranges flanking the porch have sash windows with glazing bars, moulded stone architraves and aprons below cills. The ground floor windows have moulded cornices over. The basement plinth is squared coursed limestone with inverted relieving arches below each window. Raised band between floors, moulded cornice and hipped roof behind plain parapet. Ashlar stacks at ridge and at ends. A rainwater head is dated 1811. Basement walls to left and right of centre have retaining walls with balustrade, attached to main house all c.1850. Elevation, to right of entrance front, is a 6-window range, similar to the flanking bays of the entrance front. French window to left of centre has similar moulded stone architraves as other windows. Elevation to left of entrance front has a one bay ashlar return, to right, with a large blank recessed panel at ground and first floor. 4-window range to centre and left is squared coursed limestone with sash windows, under gauged stone heads. Service wing and attached chapel at Laxton Hall (q.v.) attached to south-east of this elevation. Garden front, to rear of entrance front, is a 3 storey, 11-window range. Centre 3 bays break forward as a semi-circular bay; flanking 2 bays to far left and right also break forward. Tall French doors at ground floor and sash windows, with glazing bars, to first and second floors; reducing in height at second floor. All have plain ashlar surround. Chamfered plinth with casement windows to basement. Moulded cornice with plain parapet above. Central flight of steps with ashlar parapet walls. Interior: Entrance Hall c.1811 by George Dance the younger rising through 2 storeys. Lower walls are horizontally-chanelled ashlar and upper walls are plastered. Opposite to the entrance is a wide semi-circular arch with an open colonnade, of 4 Ionic columns, above. Ironwork balustrade, between columns, was designed by William Carter and made by John Baker. The centre of the hall is formed into a square by a broad segmental arch adjacent to the entrance wall. Above is a circular lantern, the pendentives are decorated with wreaths and the central drum is formed of tall windows. The central passage to the rear of the Entrance Hall has a segmental ceiling with lozenge panels. The staircase, to the left of the centre passage, has cantilevered stone treads rising around rectangular open well; with an iron balustrade designed by Carter and made by Baker. Plaster cornice, coffered ceiling and rectangular lantern. The secondry stair to the left of the stair hall, has stone treads, a plain iron balustrade, by Baker, and rises around a narrow rectangular well. A semi-circular lobby to the right of the central passage is separated from the passage by 2 unfluted Doric columns. The lobby is lit by an iron fanlight from a semi-circular stairwell above, rising from first to second floor. This stair has a handrail similar to the main stair. The Dining Room, to the left of the Entrance Hall, has a mid/late C19 black marble fireplace, six-panel reeded oak doors and a plaster cornice by Francis Bernasconi. There are large piers in the corners adjacent to the Entrance Hall. The Music Room, now the Sitting Room, to the right of the Entrance Hall, is similar to the Dining Room but with a white marble fireplace by Westmacott decorated with 2 female musicians in Grecian dress. The South Drawing Room, now a dining room, to the left of the stair hall has a white marble fireplace, with detached columns, and a ceiling decoration by Bernasconi. The Drawing Room, now a Chapel, to the right of the central passage, is similar to the Music Room with a white marble fireplace carved with a Bacchic thyrsus, lizard and butterfly. An octagonal lobby between the Drawing Room and the Music Room has a domed ceiling. The Library to the centre of the garden front was created from 3 existing rooms, c.1810, by Carter. The centre room has a semi-circular bow. The reveals to the opening between the flanking rooms are ashlar faced. There are 2 identical fireplaces by Westmacott, with rams head decoration, and ceiling decoration by Bernasconi. The first floor rooms have plain classical and Grecian cornices and plain C19 fireplaces. Some first floor rooms have been subdivided. The basement rooms have barrel vaulted and groined ceilings, the centre room, under the Library, has a central column. Laxton Hall passed from the Staffords of Blatherwyke to the Evans family in 1720 and was later occupied by the Barons Carbery of the same family. Susan Lady Carbery married George Freke Evans in 1806, her first husband's cousin. He employed Repton to extend and remodel the house; Repton was dismissed in 1808, following a dispute, and the works were completed by William Carter the surveyor. The works, to the main house, carried out at this time included the construction of the entrance front and the remodelling and refacing of the garden front. Lord Carbery sold the house about 1895, in 1924 it became Blackfriars School and in 1968 a residential old peoples home. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: p289; RCHM: An Inventory of Architectural Monuments in North Northamptonshire: p109; Northamptonshire Records Office; Freke Evans (Laxton) Collection and Architectural Drawings Collection)

Record last edited

Sep 5 2023 11:11AM