Wingerworth Hall, demolished 1927, was the ancestral home of the Hunloke family in the village of

Wingerworth Wingerworth is a large village and parish in North East Derbyshire, England. Its population, according to the 2011 census, was 6,533. Wingerworth is southwest of Chesterfield, south of Sheffield and north of London. Tupton, Clay Cross, Gra ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was built on an elevated site and completed in 1724 by an unknown architect. The house was in the rare style of understated

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

peculiar to England. The rectangular building was on three floors raised above a

semi-basement In architecture, a semi-basement, lower ground, lower level, etc. is a floor of a building that is half below ground, rather than entirely such as a true basement or cellar. Traditionally, semi-basements were designed in larger houses where staf ...

, thus causing to the principal rooms to be on a

piano nobile ( Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ) is the architectural term for the principal floor of a '' palazzo''. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the house ...

reached from a broad straight external staircase. The principal

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

was of three

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

s with the central entrance bay projecting. The ornament was chaste, alleviated by only by the

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

of the central entrance which supported a broken pediment,

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

ing at the extremities of the building and massive key stones above each window. The roof was hidden by a balustrade decorated by urns alternating with stone

sphere A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

s. This format of design was typical of the rare late English Baroque, and can be seen in a less sophisticated form at Sherborne House in Dorset and in its full fruition at Chatsworth and

Easton Neston Easton Neston is situated in south Northamptonshire, England. Though the village of Easton Neston which was inhabited until around 1500 is now gone, the parish retains the name. At the 2011 Census the population of the civil parish remained le ...

. The interior of Wingerworth was arranged around a central double height hall described as "a model of English Baroque". The gardens of Wingerworth Hall were designed by

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great designer of the classic phase of the English landscape garden, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown. His style is thought of as the precursor of the more intric ...

. By the end of the 19th century the Hunloke's fortune was severely depleted and the house was let to tenants. In 1920 it was offered for sale. Failing to find a purchaser wishing to reside in the house, the Hunloke family sold it to a demolition contractor, and its interiors were stripped and sold. One of the rooms was displayed in the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

.St Louis Art Museum
/ref> The room was removed when the galleries were renovated in the mid-1980s. The neoclassical Oak Drawing Room was purchased by William Randolph Hearst to be reassembled in

Hearst Castle Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada ( Spanish for "The Enchanted Hill"), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his arc ...

at San Simeon. Unused by Hearst, it was eventually acquired by architect Wilson McClure who used it as the nucleus of a house in Dallas, Texas. The two servants' buildings and the gate keepers lodge on Hockley Lane remains as private dwellings.

Notes

External links

Wingerworth Hall
- Wingerworth Hall, Estate and much more

- longer history with additional images

References

* Former country houses in England Country houses in Derbyshire British country houses destroyed in the 20th century {{Derbyshire-struct-stub