Building record 4351/2/1 - Haselbech Hall

Country House. Probably mid C18 and early C20. By Henry Jones for Randolf Wykes. Limestone ashlar with slate roof.

{1} Country House. Probably mid C18 and early C20. By Henry Jones for Randolf Wykes. Limestone ashlar with slate roof. Double depth plan. 2 storeys with attic. Entrance façade; 1-window range has centre breaking forward as large 2-storey canted bay. Ground floor has early C20 double doors with arched head and decorative moulded stone surround. First floor has large stone mullioned window with transoms. Parapet with roundel decoration above. Flanking windows are stone mullions with transoms; 2 lights to left and 4 lights to right. 4 light first floor window and 2-light attic windows. Pair of Jacobean gables with ashlar parapets. Gabled roofs with ashlar stacks at ridge. Façade to right is similar. Wing to left demolished in 1960s. The house was gutted by fire in 1917 and remodelled by Crawley after that date. Interior not inspected.

{3} North front of three bays and three storeys, with Jacobean gables and a projecting two-storey central porch. The easat side was pulled down in the 1960s. The original house is known to have been built just before 1678 by Henry Jones for Randolph Wikes, but the present Jacobean building is the result of alterations made in the mid C19th and early C20th. The house was gutted by fire in 1917, and rebuilt for Captain Bower Ismay by Crawley, who added the Jacobean gables.

{4} Little is known of the changes in the village during the C17th except that Haselbech Hall was built just before 1678 for the Wyke family. This was followed by further alterations in the next century.

{5} Undated photo;

{6} "During 1940, the War Office greatly expanded the numbers if country houses which it occupied in all parts of the country. In the face of the threat of invasion there was a large build-up of the British Army with the training of new recruits and the formation of new regiments and battalions. In 1941 there were over two million troops (British and Colonial) based in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, many of them in counrty houses. To take random examples …The 11th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment was at a Haselbech House in Northamptonshire, an Edwardian Jacobean house belonging to the Ismay family…" Mrs Ismay moved into cottage opposite the Hall. Company's billeted at Lamport Hall, Husbands Bosworth, and the Hemplow near Welford.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 6/45 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), G02 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN44900.

<3> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.252 (checked) (Series). SNN1320.

<4> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.100-101 (part checked) (Series). SNN77381.

<5> Photographs of buildings in Haselbech (Photographs). SNN112655.

<6> ROBINSON J.M., 1989, The Country House At War, 135+ (unchecked) (Book). SNN48506.

Record last edited

Jul 13 2023 2:54PM