Robert Smythson: The grand Yorkshire houses which are proud monuments of a master mason

The latter deals with the buildings which can be connected with Robert Smythson, his son, John, and his grandson.

One of the main sources of evidence for the work was the collection of Smythson drawings belonging to the Royal Institute of British Architects.

These combine with documentary evidence from accounts or letters to produce a definite picture of Smythson’s involvement with certain buildings.

Other structures may be added on stylistic grounds or grounds of family connection.

Girouard adds: ‘But it should be emphasised that there is an especially high degree of surmise in linking buildings of this period to individuals owing to the organisation of the Elizabethan building world’.

In fact, the author says there were no Elizabethan architects, and maintains that in England at this time ‘architect’ both as a word and a concept was so alien and unfamiliar as to be meaningless.

Nonetheless, Smythson is now known for being largely responsible for some of the most original, exciting and romantic of Elizabethan houses, including Longleat, Wollaton, Hardwick, and Yorkshire’s Burton Agnes.

Additionally, Smythson may be linked to a small number of other impressive buildings in the county.

Amongst the characteristics of his designs were: a fascination for regularity, huge areas of glass, towers, and bay windows.

Further, he may be said to borrow ideas and decoration from Renaissance design on the continent.

Smythson was born in 1534/4, and his early life was thought to be obscure.

The only snippet of information came from a comment made in 1568 by Humphrey Lovel, the Queen’s Master Mason, that Smythson, then 33, ‘of laytt was with Master Vice-Chamberlaine.’

But new information was revealed by Adrian Woodhouse in Country Life (1991): ‘Smithson came from Westmorland. His “forebears” were tenant farmers from the parish of Crosby Ravensworth in the old West Ward of the county, but his father may well have been a mason’.

Girouard states, nothing is firmly known of Smythson until March 1568 when he led a group of masons to Longleat House, Wiltshire.

He had with him a letter of recommendation from the Queen’s master mason. At Longleat, Smythson assisted in the reconstruction of the house and worked with a senior foreign architectural craftsman, the Frenchman Alan Maynard.

Afterwards, Smythson’s career flourished with some of his work concentrated in the north of England.

Girouard syas there are remarkable similarities between Barlborough Hall in Derbyshire and Heath Old Hall, Wakefield. The first is dated 1583 on the porch and 1584 on a fireplace.

At Heath a fireplace is said to have been dated 1585. Both houses had a square ground plan.

Heath measured some 74 feet along each side and was built around a small central court originally open to the sky. Country Life (1954) adds: ‘It was of two storeys above a basement but at either end of the south front, tower-like bays rose to a third floor and added to the picturesqueness of the outline which was further enhanced by battlements’.

Whilst there is nothing amongst the Smythson drawings to connect these two houses, nor is there any evidence to link Smythson with either of them, Girouard argues there can be little doubt that Smythson supplied plans for Barlborough.

In a final comment he submits that Barlborough was the original and Heath the copy, though the difference in time between them appears to have been exceedingly small.

Pontefract Old or New Hall was built by Edward Talbot, Bess of Hardwick’s younger stepson.

It had 1591 over the porch and Girouard states that Talbot’s projects of the same period are likely to have involved Robert Smythson.

The mason/designer had a number of prominent patrons and amongst them were Sir John Thynne, Sir Francis Willoughby, the Cavendish family, the Duke of Newcastle and Eizabeth Hardwick who became Countess of Shrewsbury.

She was better known as Bess of Hardwick and built the Hardwick New Hall.

The National Trust website states that for the first time in English history, an architect was commissioned to design the building and continues: ‘Robert Smythson, known as the first English architect, utilised new ideas on symmetry in his designs and created plans that were in complete contrast to the adjacent old hall’.

The large quantity of glass used in the design led to locals saying: ‘Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall’.

The house was ready for Bess to move into during 1597.

A definite attribution to Smythson is Burton Agnes Hall, near Driffield, built for Sir Henry Griffiths.

In Welcome to Burton Agnes Hall & Gardens (2013) it is stated: ‘The beautiful proportions of the Hall and its adherence to the principles of Tudor Renaissance architecture (Commodity, Firmness and Delight) confirm that a professional [Robert Smythson] prepared the designs…It is the only Smythson design where the plan still exists in the RIBA collection’.

Girouard called Burton Agnes Hall’s entrance façade ‘a splendid and glittering composition’.

The house is dated 1601 above the porch, and more dates, up to 1610, are visible on other parts of the building.

However, Girouard points out that Smythson’s plan for the house differs slightly from the one actually built.

The architectural historian describes Fountain’s Hall, near Ripon, as a wonderfully dramatic house and a variation of Wollaton Hall which Smythson designed and was completed in 1588.

It is argued that the whole feel of Fountains Hall, with its height, tightness and audacity make it very probable that Smythson provided designs for the building.

Fountains Hall was built by Sir Stephen Proctor and dated c. 1611. This would make the house one of Smythson’s very late works.

Girouard takes time to mention and include an illustration of Thorpe Salvin, near Sheffield, in his book. Yet, this is to explain that the structure reflects Smythson’s work at Buxton and Chatsworth.

The author provides no direct evidence to link Thorpe Salvin and Smythson.

In fact, Girouard says the very prominent use of chimney stacks at Thorpe Salvin is something seldom, if ever found in a Smythson building.

The Slingsby village website mentions that a ruin seen today and known as Slingsby Castle near Malton is a Jacobean mansion built around 1630-1640 for Bess of Hardwick’s grandson, Sir Charles Cavendish.

Robert Smythson had produced basement and ground floor plans for Slingsby Castle though these were not carried out. Girouard comments that Slingsby is one of the saddest of Smythson’s might-have-beens.

However, Robert’s son, John, produced a design that was actually built. But the Slingsby website says: ‘there is no record of the house ever being inhabited and it seems that it was never completed’.

The Slingsby ruins are in the care of English Heritage and are in a very fragile state.

Further, John Smythson is said to have been the designer of Shireoaks Hall rather than his father. The Hall was built sometime between about 1610 and 1620.

A few of the houses linked to Smythson continue to thrive today – Burton Agnes is a prime example. Others have been demolished or are in ruins.

A report from July 19, 1954 said that Heath Old Hall, listed only a few years earlier, was doomed to decay and added: ‘Not long ago nobody wanted to buy it, now nobody wants it as a gift, and what is more nobody can suggest any possible use for it’.

Heath Old Hall was demolished around 1961; Pontefract New or Old Hall suffered a similar fate in the 1960s.

Robert Smythson retired to live at Wollaton and died there in 1614.

An ornate commemorative plaque can be seen in St Leonard’s Church at Wollaton, describing him as ’Architector and Surveyor unto the most worthy house of Wollaton with divers others of great account’.

Thanks to Professor Dr Paul Buckland for help with this piece.