Howsham Hall

Howsham Hall School

Engraving of Howsham Hall
Motto	Potentes Virtute ("Strength In Courage")
Established	1958
Closed	2007
Type	Preparatory school
Gender	Coeducational

Howsham Hall is a 28,336 square feet (2,632.5 m²) grade I listed Jacobean stately home in Howsham, North Yorkshire, England.

It is built in two storeys of limestone ashlar to a U-shaped plan with a 7-bay frontage. The house was converted to a preparatory school in the mid-20th century. The house has been for sale since 2009.

In the early 16th century the Howsham estate belonged to nearby Kirkham Priory and following the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII was granted to Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland around 1540. His great-grandson sold it to Thomas Bamburgh. The present Hall was built in about 1610 on the site of a previous manor house, using stone from the priory, by Sir William Bamburgh, whose coat of arms, with those of his wife Mary Forthe, is above the main entrance. The cellar is Norman and the main part of the house is Jacobean. However the structure of the building has since been altered over the years. Sir William was High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1607–08.

In 1709, the house having passed by marriage to the Wentworth family, Sir John Wentworth added the east front.

Having passed again by marriage to the Cholmeley family of Whitby Abbey, the house was remodelled in about 1775 for Nathaniel Cholmeley, possibly by John Carr. There is a Georgian brick extension at the back of the house and some of the windows have been altered so they have larger panes in the Georgian style. The parkland was laid out by Capability Brown in the 1770s for the Cholmeley family. In the grounds are three Giant Sequoia trees arranged in a triangle. These were given to a limited number of country estates in the seventeenth century. Sequoias were unknown to European horticulture till the middle of the 19th century, post the California goldrush.