Listed Building record MDR3503 - Holme Hall, Holme Lane, Bakewell

(SK 21546911) Holme Hall. (1) Grade I listed building. 1626 datestone but lower portion to the north may be earlier. An attractive small mansion in the genre of Haddon Hall. Stone with quoins, hipped roof. Main facade embattled with obelisk finials. Central porch wing of three storeys, door now blocked, large trans-mullioned window upper storey. Three storeys at either side with two storey embattled transmullioned bay windows, tiered overall. Chimneys back onto one massive central chimney stack. Former chapel below terrace at rear. Lower north wing built partly of chert, presumably from Holme Bank behind the house, where the oldest chert quarry in Bakewell was situated. Three storeys, top storey dormers with oval lights with moulded architraves and four keystones, each. Below, mullioned windows, ground floor windows with later Gothic glazing bars. Central gothic arched doorway of 14th or 15th century now blocked and contains later entrance with massive timber door. Interior: Ground floor of oldest part, formerly used as a kitchen, retains massive stone fireplace arch. Stone fireplaces to central shaft in rest of house. 17th century rail and muntin square panelling with band of arcading at top- a different design in each room. Crossed chamfered ceiling beams. Upper floor has slightly concave plaster ceiling with curved beams. (2,3) The main part of the house dates from 1626, however the west wing, set slightly back, almost certainly dates from Tudor times, The recorded history does not go back that far, where the earliest reference is when Bernard Wells took up residence with his wife Barbara, and converted what was a small farmstead into a sizeable mansion in 1626. Bernard Wells is buried in Bakewell Church where there is a brass plate to his memory. Structural changes there have been, but mostly minor ones that have done nothing to impair the character of the building, which still carries the flavour of the 17th century. The main entrance porch is now on the east side of the house, (an alteration probably made in the 19th century for no obvious reason), which then leads into a spacious hall finely panelled in dark oak, as indeed are most of the rooms at Home. In the old kitchen, now the billiard room, there is evidence of a Tudor farmhouse kitchen, with studded door, beamed ceiling, and a immense fireplace which is at least 15ft across. The main staircase is Jacobean, a broad example of its period. (5)