Image ID: 04616

Winthorpe Hall: Datestone on the chimney

Courtesy of Reg Baker

Winthorpe Hall
Winthorpe
England

The datestone on the chimney at the east end of Winthorpe Hall. The date 1886 refers to the brick extension to the hall that this chimney surmounts. Winthorpe Hall was begun in 1761 by Dr Robert Taylor of Newark, physician to George II. No architect is recorded, and by the time of his death in 1762, Taylor is said to have been all but bankrupt. It is probable, therefore, that when, in that year, the house was sold to Roger Pocklington (a Newark banker) the house was still incomplete. Once again, no architect is recorded, and it is possible that Pocklington himself modified the original plans to suit his own purposes. Pevsner describes the hall as follows: 'Of Mansfield Stone, five bays, one and a half storeys above a rusticated basement. On the entrance front (north) a double flight of stone steps up to a Venetian window with a Diocletian window above in the slightly projecting pedimented central bay. South and east fronts wash with deep canted bay. Entered from the north, the hall, with an Ionic screen, opens axially into a semi octagonal saloon in the centre of the south front. In the centre of the west fide the staircase (of the type with three balisters to a tread). Along nearly the whole of the east front, a room extending L-wise into the canted bay. Dull panelled ceilings throughout, richest in the saloon, where the chimneypiece has a scallop shell disgorging fruit from within a broken pediment.' Roger Pocklington and his family passed many happy years at Winthorpe Hall, until the early years of the 19th century brought money troubles. Aged about 70, Roger Pocklington was still a co-partner in the Newark Bank, which in turn was associated with Samuel Raynes' bank in Retford, Nottinghamshire. In 1803, both banks had become heavily indebted to their London bankers who demanded security to the amount of

Date: 01/06/1985

Organisation Reference: NCCE000541

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