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The approach to the Hall from the north is quite spectacular and splendid. Through gate piers into the outer courtyard, a large grassed area with two pedimented archways to the east and west, and up towards the gatehouse and triumphal archway into an enclosed inner courtyard and the Hall itself.
The Astley motto sits above the external Georgian pedimented doorway which leads into the Entrance Hall, through a glazed Victorian porch, erected by the 6th Earl of Dartmouth over the original bridge from the courtyard. The pedimented and pilastered entrance, complete with the Dartmouth shield, is of 19th century design. The central axis of the main Gibbs' block is occupied by the two principal rooms of the house, two storeys high and of superb and outstanding decoration and proportion.
The imposing Baroque Entrance Hall has approximately the proportion of a cube, and has raised wall panels with ear and lugged decoration. The ten fluted pilasters which support a modillioned cornice have inverted volutes above the capitals. It has been suggested that this unusual motif, which comes from a pattern book by the Italian, Borromini, was introduced by Smith of Warwick during construction.
The coved ceiling could be of a later 18th century design. The vitruvian scroll border in low relief with grotesque head motifs, the internal panels and central feature, are somewhat unconvincing of a Gibbs' design, compared with the ceiling in the adjoining Saloon.
The stone chimneypiece has two atlantes and a central panel of the frieze, depicting a lion in relief. The pedimented overmantle has a scroll surround and is a typical Gibbs design.
The overdoors and pedimented doorcase leading into the Saloon have fine palm leaf decorations, swags and a central shell motif.
Please click here to see an A4 image of the plan of Patshull Hall
Tha Hall is dominated by a painting on the west wall, executed in a naïve style relating to scenes of Sir John de Astley and his famous single combats at Paris in 1438 and at Smithfield in 1441. It is probable that the painting was executed in the 17th century for the old manor house, and that it was transferred to the new Hall after its demolition.
The splendid decoration of the Saloon, a cube and a half in proportion, and the finest room in the house, indicate the exuberance of the plasterwork of the Italian stuccatori, undoubtedly Vassali and Artari who had worked on previous projects for Gibbs and Smith. The ear and lugged wall panels and ribbon and wreathed classical motifs and strands of fruit and flowers are probably of a later date.
Above the paulds are classical heads, centralised between swags of drapery and shells with festoons of fruit and flowers. On the east and west walls are cartouches of Gibbs' designs, incorporating shell motifs with wreaths of oak-leafed branches with acorns. In the corners of the room are fluted ionic half pilasters supporting a heavy modillioned cornice. This idea was used at Sutton Scarsdale Hall in Derbyshire, which had been built by Smith of Warwick in 1724, now in ruins. This is also of a similar, but richer, design to the cornice in the former Drawing Room at Sutton Scarsdale.
The deep relief ceiling, all modelled with oak leaf and acorn decoration, is divided into compartments by ribs surrounding a central wreath, which probably contained a painted mural.
The heavy and elaborate overdoors have carved central panels of swags of fruit flanked with acanthus leaves and scroll details. The somewhat plain marble chimneypiece has design features comparable with the more decorative chimneypiece which once graced the Drawing Room at Sutton Scarsdale. Three arched windows open onto a balcony with steps leading to the loggia below.
To the east and west of the two main central reception rooms are suites of rooms which have been altered or modified since the completion of the main block. These rooms include the Chinese Bedroom and Chinese Dressing Room, the Music Room, Drawing Room, Small Library (now a Dining Room), the Library, Dining Room, Billiard Room and Chapel.
The Principal Staircase, created in 1876, rises full height of the house, from basement and from ground floor, around four sides of a wall. It gives access to the mezzanine, the west Granville tower at a half-landing, and to the 2nd floor, where it connects with the original transverse corridor by a short passage.
The top floor retains the majority of its original decoration and chimneypieces, and originally contained the best bedchambers.
The corridor is lit by a central lantern and is decorated by a heavy plaster cornice and arched doorways, giving access to rooms either side, some of which are lit by oval windows in the corridor.
The whole feeling is more Vanbrugh than Gibbs, as he was one of the first architects to use corridors in his designs. As Sir John Vanbrugh explained to the Duchess of Marlborough, "the corridor, Madame, is foreign, and signifies in plain English no more than a passage".
Later subdivisions and alterations have been removed to reveal the original plan of the second floor, and recreate one of the finest, most complete examples of this type of suite of rooms.
The Manor of Patshull or "Patteshull" was given by William I to Robert de Stafford from whom it passed through various families until c. 1943 when it came into the possession of the Astley family.
The original moated house and church were set in a medieval deer park on lower ground near the lake.
In the 17th Century, Sir Richard Astley created a series of formal gardens which were admired by Celia Fiennes on her travels in 1698. Very little of this garden and features remain except several statues of classical mythology and two statues of cavaliers, now in recesses in the north screen wall of the courtyard of the present house.
James Gibbs, the architect of Sir John Astley's new house designed a new church for him within the grounds and this was consecrated in 1743.
Around 1768, Sir George Pigot was advised by Lancelot "Capability" Brown on the remodelling of the park and Brown was paid £52/10s for a general plan for the place and journeys. The lake incorporated a number of earlier "pools", and was one of the largest in any of the landscapes designed by Brown.
The Earls of Dartmouth altered Brown's landscape by introducing terraces, formal gardens, fountains, new walks, and a substantial planting scheme of specimen conifers and other rare trees.
Several designs by William Broderick Thomas, the landscape architect and gardener of Sandringham House, were executed for the Dartmouths. It is probable that he was involved in the construction of the terraces.
When the estate was dispersed, most of Brown's designed parkland was converted into a golf course, with one of the classical temples incorporated into a hotel and golf clubhouse.