LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING
Graythwaite Hall is situated on the western shore of Lake Windermere within The Lake District National Park and World Heritage Site. The late-C19 garden surrounding the hall occupies about eight hectares. On the east and south sides the gardens are defined by sections of the more extensive estate boundary wall of red-sandstone with continuous vertical capping. On the west side it is largely defined by a sinuous post and wire deer fence. The land is generally gently undulating with rocky outcrops, with no view of the lake.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The main south entrance has a central carriage opening with ornate, classical piers and pyramidal caps with ball finials, and is flanked to either side by a pedestrian gate with similar but taller and more substantial piers. The original, decorative wrought iron gates are thought to be retained. An asymmetrically-designed lodge is situated to the south side, and a flat and relatively straight drive heads north around the east side of the hall to the rear court. The east entrance has an identical entrance, with a two-bay, gabled contemporary lodge with multiple chimneys and a partially projecting upper storey on its north side. A drive runs westwards down slope and around a high rocky outcrop through an area of mixed woodland, before curving south past the stable block to the hall's rear court. The original, pre-Mawson east entrance has been blocked and contains a smaller, segmental-headed, pedestrian entrance. Set immediately to its south is the original three-bay lodge with a central, projecting, gabled entrance, decorative barge boards, label moulds and the Sandys coat of arms above the segmental main entrance. The original drive is visible as a gravelled path before it merges with the main drive.
PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS
Graythwaite Hall (Grade II, National Heritage List for England (NHLE): 1335765) is thought to have C17 origins, remodelled in the C18, C19 and early C20: the main Tudor Revival garden elevation of 1890 is contemporary with Mawson's landscaping. It has mostly mullioned and transomed windows, and a two-storey centre of three bays incorporating a balustraded veranda, with flanking, projecting three-storey shaped gabled bays with double-height bay windows and balustrades with ball finials. The long west elevation mostly has cross-mullioned windows with leaded glazing and label moulds. The east elevation has a late-C17 entrance with Ionic aedicule with a pulvinated frieze. The stables to the north-west are a large, U-shaped symmetrical building, half-timbered with a central clock tower.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
The house sits prominently on shallow south and west terraces, with commanding views from the south and west fronts across the gardens and the landscape beyond. The terraces are formed of dry stone slate walls with balustrades and flat coping stones in pink St Bee’s Sandstone that match the material of the house south elevation. A prominent series of curvilinear steps with low solid walls and squat piers with ball finials link the south terrace with the lower lawn. A straight flight of steps leads down from the terrace at its south-west corner with similar piers and finials. At the east end of the terrace, the line of the balustrade is continued by a hedge of battlemented yew. Running west from the west elevation of the house there is a wide, elevated, terrace walk flanked by low limestone walls, with flat pink sandstone coping stones to the rear and a balustrade to the front. At each end it terminates in low piers with ball finials, the west end curvilinear with a set of steps down. A seating recess with scrolled back and sides at the centre of the north wall, contains a stone bench. Opposite, an opening through the south wall leads down a set of stone steps to a rectangular formal garden (Rose Garden) that extends almost back to the west elevation; today this is lawned with borders and a stone sun dial by Dan Gibson to the centre. Overlooked by the east elevation of the house there is a geometric formal garden (Dutch Garden) outlined in yew, and whose steep western slope is terraced into three terrace walks. The gravelled surface of this garden is cut into low box hedge parterres with a tall sun dial by Gibson at its centre. Mawson's ‘mushroom yews’ remain in the form of globes of yew topiary shaped so the top is of golden yew and the bottom of dark green yew.
A sloping and undulating grassy sward runs south of the house down to the south boundary, the former dotted with specimen trees including some pre-existing beech trees that were incorporated into the scheme, and some columner conifers introduced by Mawson to add a more formal note. The greensward is bounded and framed by a mixture of deciduous and evergreen woodland, within which there is a sinuous roughly circular walk allowing a variety of views of the house from different positions. A stream runs north to south along the west side of the gardens, and is landscaped to produce a series of bends and cascades and made into a water garden. To the north west of the house a rocky outcrop planted with fir trees is reached by a sinuous pathway that today (2020) leads to a pet cemetery surrounded by a yew hedge.
MAPPING NOTE The registered area was mapped at 1:2500 and should be viewed at this scale to see the extent of the site.