Building record 5138/3/1 - Upton Hall (Quinton House School)

Country house built mainly during the mid 18th century with late 15th to early 16th century origins. Altered circa 1809 and late 19th century. Restored in 1985. Now used as a school.

{1} Country house, now school. Mid C18 with late C15/early C16 origins. Alterations and additions of c.1809. Other late C19 alterations. Restored 1985. Red brick with some flared headers, ironstone dressings, slate and plain tile roofs, brick internal stacks. Complex plan. 3-storey, 11-window range. Central 8-panel door with painted pilastered stone surround with pediment. 12-pane sash windows to ground and first floors with stone sills and keyblocked stone lintels. 6-pane attic floor windows with similar sills and heads. Central bay breaks forward slightly. Ground and first floor windows either side flank round-arched niches with statues of Seasons of artificial stone probably C19. 2-window left end bay breaks forward. That to right extended forward 1809 by 3 bays. Stone plinth, first floor storey band, moulded stone cornice, moulded stone-coped parapet and raised stone quoins to angles. Projecting wing to right has rainwater heads with initials TS WS and dated 1809 to north. Parapet on this side has swept-up ends. Irregular kitchen wing to rear right. 3-bay, 2 storey and attic recessed right side elevation with back door and porch flanked by 12-pane sash windows, similar windows to first floor either side of a 24-pane sash, all with stone lintels and keyblocks. Hipped roof dormers with 2-light leaded windows. Left side elevation has C19 French windows and sash windows, all with cemented wood lintels. Rear elevation of main range has canted single-storey bay window with Gothick sashes, and similar sashes to ground and first floors in bricked-up openings of former stone mullion windows. Attic gables, that to left with quatrefoil window, that to right with leaded 1-light windows with moulded stone surrounds flanking stone end stack. Interior: Original late C15/early C16 4-bay hall roof survives above present hall ceiling. Moulded arch-braced collar trusses with 5-light ogee-arched divisions on collar and intermediate chamfered arch-braced collar trusses with side struts. 4 tiers of moulded wind-braced purlins, quatre-foil wind-bracing to top tier. 2 bay addition to service end with chamfered arch-braced collar trusses with side struts to principal rafters and 3 tiers of wind-braced purlins. 4-light gable window survives internally at other end with hollow-chamfered stone mullions partly broken away, arched heads with cut spandrels and hood mould. Cross-wing roof beyond has collar trusses and 2 tiers of wind-braced purlins and attic room with Tudor-arched stone fireplace with cut spandrels. Plaster-vaulted cross passage in position of original screens passage. Fine plasterwork by Guiseppe Artari in sitting room to right of passage and hall. Sitting room has plasterwork ceiling in two compartments and blank plaster frames to walls with shell apron swags and ornamental plasterwork drops either side of fireplace and window opposite. 2-storey hall has painted stone chimneypiece to centre of back wall with half-pilasters, pulvinated frieze with blank central tablet and broken segmental pediment framing plaster bust of Flora, flanked by plaster putti reclining on pediment and holding a sheaf of corn and a bunch of grapes to left and right respectively. 6-panel doors flank fireplace and have eared surrounds with pulvinated frieze and pediment. End walls have 3-bay blank round-arched arcades, the centre bays framing 6-panel double-leaf doors with cartouches above. Either side are plaster medallions with busts in low relief of Mercury and Diana (right) and Mars and Minerva (left). Niche opposite fireplace frames plaster life-size statue of Apollo with lyre, signed on left side of plinth JOSEPH ARTARI and inscribed on right side FE. AN. 1737. 6-panel double-leaf door above right end door with eared surround and wrought-iron balcony. Portraits, mostly of members of Samwell family, all oil on canvas and in architectural frames complete the decoration of the walls, including a large conversation piece over statue of Apollo with Sir Thomas Samwell, his son Thomas and 3 daughers. Compartmented plaster ceiling in style of Inigo Jones with central octagonal compartment and guilloche to divisions. 'Monks' room behind hall has Gothick doors with triple-shafted surrounds and similar triple shafts to veined marble chimneypiece. Coloured glass to upper lights of Gothick sashes with painted glass shields. Veined marble bolection-moulded fireplace surround in adjacent room with late C18 painted wood surround. Open well staircase from ground floor to attic with barley-sugar balusters. Fielded panelling to staff-room. High beamed ceiling to kitchen. (Buildings of England, Northants, 1973, p358)

{3} Dendrochronology dated the building to 1513 +/- 10 years.

{10} As part of improvements to facilities at the school a new dining room was proposed which was to occupy a courtyard area. A porch in the courtyard area, constructed of brick and coursed limestone rubble, with central door. Internally there were two toilet cubicles with a corridor between. It probably relates to work carried out on the house by Mr George Turner and was built before 1886.
A watching brief undertaken during the lifting of the courtyard surface found a cellar, with walls constructed of stone and a brick vaulted roof. A doorway connected it to the kitchen on the east side. It was thought to be 19th century.

{11} The Samwells bought Upton in 1600 from the Knightleys of Fawsley, who had owned the house since 1419. The main east façade of the house was built for Sir Thomas Samwell of c1736-7 and is attributed to Francis Smith of Warwick.

{12} Former open hall where a ceiling was inserted in the 1730s, and the upper part of the hall is now visible only in the attic. At Upton the hall, 12.1m long by 6.4m wide (39ft 9in by 21ft) is similar in size to that of Abington. The roof of four bays has five principal trusses, including those against the stone gable walls, and four intermediate trusses. Four sets of moulded purlins, unequally-spaced, are butted into the principals. The ridge timber is unmoulded and set diagonally. Principal trusses have high cambered collars. Moulded arch braces run into lower braces originally housed in wall-posts removed when the ceiling was inserted in the eighteenth century. Housings on each side of the principals, just above the walls, indicate the former presence of a cornice. Set between collar and apex in the principal trusses are thin moulded mullions, the head of each opening having an ogee-shaped panel slotted in between the mullions. Intermediate trusses have a cambered collar set just below the upper purlins. Arched braces descend to the second purl in from the bottom, where the intermediate truss originates. Above are two sharply curved struts housed into the centre of the top of the collar and forming a V-shape. The ornate pattern of windbraces is similar to that at Boughton.

{13} Undated photo.

{14} SP 7165 6022: Upton Hall School (NAT).

{15} [Former list description] Country house of mainly 18th and early 19th century appearance. Incorporates structure, including hall roof truss, of 15th century house for Knightly family, owners from 1419. Southwest wing early 17th century for Samwell family owners from 1600. Main block remodelled mid 18th century; hall statue of Apollo, dated 1737, by Giuseppe Artari; rainwater head on east 1744. East entrance front: stone dressed redbrick, some grey headers. Roof parapet. 3 storeys, top floor may be later addition. Plinth, first floor band, second floor cornice. L plan main block with projection on right, slight projections on left and near centre. 2:3:1:3:2 sash windows, all with stone sills, voussoirs and keys; glazing bars (heavy on first floor), except to ground floor on right. Doric door surround wih pilasters, pediment, 6 fielded 2 glazed panel door. Semi-circular round arched niches with archivolts, 1 either side of 3 central windows on ground floor and first floor, each with statue of the Seasons circa 1790.

Projecting wing on right has rainwater head dated 1809 with initials TSWS. First floor niche in centre of south side. Main south front of 3 windows remodelled and cement rendered circa 1810-20, now with rendering removed, rubble walling exposed. 2 storeys. Gabled west front with jointed arched windows. Early west wing remodelled late 18th or early 19th century. Interior: very fine 2 storey hall with elaborate plasterwork to walls and ceiling including figures, bas reliefs in medallions, dummy arcades; heavy ornate ceiling panels with running fret, guilloche and caisson patterns; wrought iron balcony grille. Later 17th century staircase.

{18} Four photos dated 1990;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 4/3 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> 1976, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), L10 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN1000.

<3> Meirion-Jones G.I. Et al., 1987, Dating by Dendrochronology of Three Northamptonshire Halls, p.34-40 (unchecked) (Article). SNN59979.

<4> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1985, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.408 (checked) (Series). SNN77383.

<5> Heward J.; Taylor R., 1996, The Country Houses of Northamptonshire, p.317 (unchecked) (Book). SNN41757.

<6> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.358+438 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<7> Aldsworth F., 2005, A Listed Buildings and Desk-Based Archaeological Assessment for Quinton House School, Upton, Northampton, (unchecked) (Report). SNN105350.

<8> Heward, J., Upton Hall, Northampton, (unchecked) (Report). SNN70217.

<9> SHAW M., 1992, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49530.

<10> Prentice, J., 2007, Archaeological building recording and watching brief at Quinton House School, Northampton June 2007, Checked (Report). SNN108108.

<11> Bailey, B, Pevsner, N, and Cherry, B, 2013, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p. 627 (Book). SNN111989.

<12> Moir J.; Moir M. (Editors), 1995-2005, Vernacular Architecture, Vol 18/p. 38 (Journal). SNN102633.

<13> Photographs of buildings in Upton (Photographs). SNN113623.

<14> Ordnance Survey Map (Scale/date), OS 1:10000 1976 (Map). SNN112944.

<15> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, DOE(HHR) Distrist of Northampton, Northants. January 1976 (Report). SNN112993.

<16> Historic England, Undated, UPTON HALL, UPTON, BF061898 (Archive). SNN114636.

<17> Historic England, Undated, Plans of Upton Hall, Upton, BF061898 (Archive). SNN114637.

<18> Photographs of buildings in Northampton (Photographs). SNN114989.

Record last edited

Oct 24 2024 11:53AM