Abbeystead House | |
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Abbeystead House
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Location | Abbeystead, Lancashire, England |
Coordinates | 53°59′05″N 2°39′41″W / 53.9848°N 2.6615°WCoordinates: 53°59′05″N 2°39′41″W / 53.9848°N 2.6615°W |
OS grid reference | SD 567,545 |
Built | 1886 |
Built for | 4th Earl of Sefton |
Architect | Douglas & Fordham |
Architectural style(s) | Elizabethan |
Listed Building – Grade II
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Designated | 24 February 1986 |
Reference no. | 1071597 |
Abbeystead House is a large country house to the east of the village of Abbeystead, Lancashire, England, some 12 km (7 miles) south-east of Lancaster. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
Abbeystead House was built in 1886 as a shooting lodge for the 4th Earl of Sefton. It was designed by the Chester firm of architects Douglas & Fordham, who added gun and billiard rooms in 1894. The estate holds the record for the biggest grouse bag in a day; when on 12 August 1915, 2,929 birds were shot by eight guns (shooters).
In 1980 the Abbeystead Estate, totalling 18,000 acres (73 km2) and including the house, was bought by a trust relating to the family of the Duke of Westminster.
The house is built in sandstone rubble with slate roofs in Elizabethan style. Its plan is an L-shape, with south and east ranges partly enclosing a courtyard. The south range forms the main block while the east range is the service wing which incorporates a four-storey castellated tower. To the east of the main house subsidiary buildings form a second courtyard. The south range has two storeys plus attics and is entered by a porch on its north side. The façade of the north (entrance) front is irregular, and consists of five bays, three of which project forward and are surmounted by gables of different sizes with ball finials. The front also includes mullioned and transomed windows, a dormer, and a pair of round-headed arches in ground floor of the right bay. The outer doorway of the porch has a Tudor arch with the Molyneux arms carved above; it is flanked by small single-storey turrets.