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Presentation drawings, September 1828 (3)

Notes

Drawings 41 to 43 are the final plans for Pell Wall. The drawings show designs similar to those made in May 1822 (drawings 6 to 8) with some alterations. The entrance front has a projecting portico. In the main corridor, columns are omitted though the corridor is still sub-divided into bays of varying ceilings, lighting and dimensions. The door between the eating room and drawing room has been omitted, leaving a single entrance to the eating room from the main corridor. Slightly altered is the best staircase, still a geometrical stair but with the fan-shaped landing at its head of drawing 1 instead of the rectangular one of drawing 7. The lesser landing on each flight (introduced in drawing 7) has been kept. It seems that an easier/more gradual ascent and descent has been arranged for the ladies of the house to reach their morning room and bed chambers on the first floor.

A large wing of domestic offices is introduced on the south side of the house. The arrangement and function of the basement rooms would probably have changed in response to the additional service accomodation in the new wing, but the rooms are not labelled, and the basement appears to have the same layout and dimensions as an earlier plan (drawing 6). The office wing is separate from the main house, with a link to the house at one corner. The offices on the ground floor (drawing 42) consist of three main rooms, one of which (the furthest from the house) contains two large hearths and probably serves as a kitchen. The three rooms are separated and linked, with the links arranged around the top of a staircase at the middle of the wing. The stair descends to the basement level and to a covered passage leading to the kitchen entrance. The parts of the plans in feint wash are retaining walls; in drawing 42 they surround areas open to the basement.

Drawing 43 shows the chamber and attic storeys. The chamber storey has the same layout as the earlier design (drawing 8). The bed chamber at the south-east corner (lower right-hand side of drawing) no longer has a bed, and its doorway into the adjacent dressing room has been blocked. Presumably this fourth bed and door were no longer needed because Mr Sillitoe's accomodation was downstairs. The stairwell has a large lantern on an oval plan.

The attic storey has seven rooms, four with fireplaces and probably serving as bed chambers. Each room has one dormer. An 1851 Census reveals that Purney, Eliza, Frances Mary and Elizabeth Hebblethwaite resided at Pell Wall House with five servants: two footmen, two housemaids and one cook (D. Jenkins, p.19). In his history of Pell Wall, David Jenkins states that the servants' birthplaces suggest that they moved with the family between Pell Wall and the London residence in Bedford Place (op. cit.).

Literature

D. Jenkins, The History of Pell Wall; its estate and owners, Pell Wall Preservation Trust, 2003, p. 19.

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Contents of Presentation drawings, September 1828 (3)