Record Details

Summary

16th century and later great house, probably on the site of a medieval manor house.

Monument Type(s):

• MANOR HOUSE? (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HOUSE (LC17-MC18, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1719 AD)

Associated Finds:

Protected Status:

• Registered Park or Garden (II) 1001159: Cannon Hall
• Listed Building (II*) 1151805: CANNON HALL

Full Description

<1> Large country house, now museum. Possibly late C17 in origin but heavily remodelled 1764-8 when single storey side wings were added. The C18 work by John Carr for John Spencer, the mason being John Marsden. The interior alterations in 1778 by John Carr i.e. the hall and dining room were stuccoed and the hall columns put in place. The side wings were heightened to two storeys in 1804 again by John Carr. The ballroom (north east wing) was added in 1890 to plans of Sir Walter Spencer Stanhope and the panelling and gallery completed by 1896. Restored 1965. Coursed dress sandstone with ashlar dressings. The symmetrical composition consists of a centre 3-storey block of 5 bays and slightly set back 2-storey side wings of 3 bays. Rusticated quoins. Sash windows in architrave surrounds, those to ground floor and 2nd floor of central block having pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice. The centre window has console brackets supporting the cornice and was once a doorway. The ground floor windows of the centre block extend to the ground
and appear to have been altered and have sashes of 6 over 9 panes. Other sashes are mainly 12-pane, those to the shorter 2nd storey are of 6 panes and those to the first floor of the wings are of 3 over 6 panes. Moulded eaves
cornice with balustraded parapet. Low, simple ashlar stacks set well back. The rear elevation is similar to the front but with a central, glazed Doric portico. The north-east wing projects to the left and is of 4 bays. Side elevations of the main house are of 3 bays.
Interior: The hall has Doric columns at rear with flanking pilasters. Good dog-leg stair at the rear of hall typical of the "York School". Excellent plaster ceiling in dining room of 1767, by James Henderson of York, has a centre rose, sinuous flowing foliage and musical instruments. The fireplace, of 1767, is of white and ochre marble with Ionic columns, full entablature and a central relief carving. The left room has an elaborate fireplace of 1767 from York with a C17 Dutch picture in the overmantle entitled "Still Life with Dead sane".
The house was owned by the Spencer and Spencer Stanhope families from the late C17 and was purchased by the County Borough of Barnsley in 1951. It was opened as a museum in 1957.

<2> Believed to be on the site of a medieval manor.Cannon Hall is a fine and large originally late C17 country House in a park. This was the site of a medieval manor house, although the park is post-medieval (However Thomas de Bosvile was granted free warren in 1381 so the park may have had some medieval precursor). There doesn't appear to be an actual record or evidence of the form of the medieval manor house and the speculation it was 'fortified' may be an argument from analogue alone. There is no evidence for a moat, although this is not impossible.
Some medieval stone fragments has been reconstructed as a, now listed, garden archway located at at SE27460834 although this is said to been from stone from churches brought in in the C19.

<1> English Heritage, 2005, Listed Building System Data [MIDAS dataset export in xml format]., Listed Buildings Online description (Digital archive). SSY237.

<2> Gatehouse website (Web Resource). SSY3574.

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