Description

CASTLE DONINGTON DONINGTON PARK SK 42 NW 2/59 Donington Hall and attached chapel, stables 7.12.62 and game room GV II*

Former mansion with attached chapel and service wings, now offices. 1790-93, by William Wilkins the Elder, for Francis Rawdon Hastings, second Earl of Moira and first Marquess of Hastings. Refurbished 1981-2 for British Midland Airways. Ashlar, with some plaster details. Hipped slate roofs. Main house is of court- yard plan, with chapel projecting to east, and service and stable wings project- ing to north. Embellishments are in Perpendicular-Tudor style. Principal wings are of 2 storeys, with 11-bay front to south. Chamfered plinth, moulded strings, coped parapet with 3 pierced and cusped roundels to each bay. Between bays are octagonal buttresses with crenellated turrets and small panelled and gabled projections to front. larger turrets to end and centre bays have blind panelling. Tall 3-pane sashes, all renewed C20, with Tudor hoodmoulds. Upper windows have plaster aprons with cusped arched panels. Wider central bay has 3-light arched windows with cusped tracery, and central arched door, all in Decorated style with crocketed ogee hoodmoulds, finials and carved head stops. Above is inscription frieze dated 1792 commemorating gift of the estate from Hastings' uncle, Francis, Earl of Huntingdon. Above this is a large lunette with rose tracery and stained glass. Projecting to front of centre bay is a taller porte-cochere with octagonal corner turrets, moulded arches, heraldic cusped roundels in spandrels, and ribbed vault. Above vault is an upper chamber with 5 arched 2-light windows to front, 2 windows to each side, and parapet with pierced roundels and finials. East and west elevations of main house are similar to main front but without elaborated centrepieces. Chapel: is in early English-Decorated style, and has 4 bays of tall 2-light arched windows with cusped tracery and flanking blind lancets. Larger 3-light east window in similar style, all window surrounds with shafts. Tall arched door to left of south front, with moulded arch on shafts and traceried spandrels and panel above. Buttresses are reinforced with C20 wooden props. East gable end has traceried battlements and cross finials, the left missing. Service and stable wings are roughcast or rendered, and colourwashed, with slate roofs. Wing immediately to north of chapel has ashlar battlements on east front, octagonal bell-turret, and sash windows. To north of this is a coach-house with shaped gable, flanking stable bays and a mews courtyard. This has 2-storey ranges with central pediments and C20 barred wooden casements. Attached to west side of stables is projecting passage to small octagonal game room. Game room retains thrawls and central heptagonal stand with game hooks and frieze inscribed with the days of the week. Other service buildings have been stripped of fittings. Interior of house was much refurbished 1981-2 but retains many original features. Entrance hall is in Gothick style with groin vault on clustered corner shafts. Gothick fireplace with blind-traceried gable, crockets, finial and coat-of-arms. Gothick doors with traceried panels and linenfold ornament. Entrance to stair hall takes same form as main entrance to house, with ogee doorway, windows, and lunette, the latter with mirror glazing. Stair hall is oval, with ceiling and frieze in Adam style, and C20 reproduction balustrade of wrought iron with lead ornament. Former dining room to right has segmental ceiling vault with shallow coffering, marble fireplace with frieze of classical figures, and end screen with Ionic columns of real porphyry scagliola. Drawing room to left has deeply coffered ceiling with large plaster rosettes, guilloche strips and scrolled cornice. Good panelled doors in panelled reveals. Library retains book shelves with Ionic pilasters, and Jacobean-style fireplaces, but has C20 ceiling. Chapel retains only fragments of former Gothick decoration. Illustrated in Country Life, March 22nd 1977, p828-830.

Listing NGR: SK4205326875

External Links

• Donington Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5296121

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)