Aske Hall

Aske Hall is a Georgian country house, with parkland attributed to Capability Brown, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Richmond, North Yorkshire, England. It contains an impressive collection of 18th-century furniture, paintings and porcelain, and in its grounds a John Carr stable block converted into a chapel in Victorian times with Italianate decor, a Gothic-style folly built by Daniel Garrett circa 1745, coach house with carriage, Victorian stable block, walled garden, terraced garden and lake with a Roman-style temple. The hall and estate are currently owned by the Marquess of Zetland.

It is a place of some antiquity, and long the de Aske family residence, but at first consisted merely of a square tower surrounded by bare and swampy fields. In this state it remained until it was purchased, in 1727, by Sir Conyers Darcy, who commenced the improvements that have now made it one of the finest country seats in the neighbourhood. There is an extensive prospect over the surrounding landscape from the top of the Temple, which is built on the exact model of a Hindu Temple. On Pilmore Hill (between Aske and Richmond) is a tower bearing the name of Olliver Ducat, which is said to be a perfect counterpart of an Indian hillfort.

Aske Hall's history has been well documented, notably in Richmond Architecture and in a two-part article by Giles Worsley published in Country Life in March 1990. The following description has been derived from these texts.

With the exception of the pele tower, which dates from the 12th century, the earliest surviving sections of Aske Hall were constructed in the 15th century by the medieval family of de Aske. In 1578 Robert and Eleanor Bowes added a lofty manorial hall, two storeys high internally, with a frieze about three feet high of allegorical figures with foliage in bas-relief, designed to be enjoyed from ground level. A section of this frieze has survived the many subsequent phases of alterations.

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