Building record 1933/2/2 - Museum Tower, Bell Tower, Attached Buildings & Wall, & The Old Chapel, Finedon Hall, & Attached Wall

Range of outbuildings including a museum and wintergarden to Finedon Hall, now part dwelling house. Datestones 1851 and 1856, perhaps with C18 origins.

{1} Range of outbuildings including a museum and wintergarden to Finedon Hall, now part dwelling house. Datestones 1851 and 1856, perhaps with C18 origins. Probably by E.F. Law for William Mackworth-Dolben. Ironstone ashlar with slate and pantile roofs. Museum tower and attached buildings are L-shape plan with The Old Chapel, former wintergarden, attached to north. Tudor-Gothic style. 2 and 3 storeys. West elevation to courtyard of 4-window range of 3-light stone mullion windows. Central gable entrance known as bell tower, has semi-circular arch flanked by niches with triple lancet above under drip mould. Above are 5 small arched openings and a bellcote and datestone 1851. Clasping buttresses at corners. Ashlar parapet and ashlar stacks at ridge. Wall and ashlar gatepier attached to right. South elevation to courtyard originally similar to west elevation now has one-window range remaining to far left with semi-circular arch opening below. Rear wall and 2 gable walls also remain; one has a Gothic window. Museum tower at intersection of wings, originally of 2 stages with gabled pyramid roof. Upper and lower stages remain with triple arcade to 3 faces of upper stage and 3-storey, 3-window range of single-light openings to east face of lower stage. North face has semi-circular stair turret. Stone scrolls below the triple arcades have inscriptions "Filiis Fratibus Parentes", " W.H.I.M.D. and F.M.D", and "Victoria Regnante A.D. 1856". Remains of various other inscriptions and carved heads. The old Chapel west elevation is a 5-bay arcade of double-chamfered C19 Gothic arches with quatrefoil piers and foliated capitals. Trefoils in spandrels between arches. Corbelled cornice and ashlar gable parapets. C20 extension to left. Castellated wall attached to left has semi-circular arch opening and niches. Castellated wall attached to west end of south elevation and linking with the Hall has 3 stage buttresses and 2 small Gothic style openings to left and right. The Museum Tower, Bell Tower, attached buildings and wall form two sides of a courtyard with Finedon hall (q.v.).

{4} Two undated photos, also four photos dated Nov 1981, also five photos of the old chapel dated June 1981, also photo of stable block dated 13.9.90;

{5} Photo of the old chapel dated July 1985;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 7/36 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> 1986, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), G04 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN100394.

<3> Bailey J.L.H., 1975, Finedon Otherwise Thingdon: A History of Finedon, p.85 (unchecked) (Book). SNN105040.

<4> Photographs of buildings in Finedon (Photographs). SNN111732.

<5> Photographs of buildings in Finedon (Photographs). SNN111732.

Record last edited

May 28 2025 12:43PM