Monument record MDR8544 - Ringwood Hall or Ringwood House and Grounds, Ringwood Road, Staveley

Ringwood Hall is a grade II listed building, architect Mr Thomas. The Hall was once the home of George Stephenson, the engineer. (1) An interesting if boxy house in a considerable and once fine wooded park. The house was built in c. 1809 by the ironmaster C H Barrow, who had married the widow of a co-owner of the Staveley Ironworks. It is of some size, with a 'porte cochere' of coupled Ionic columns, the order being repeated in a peristyle verandah, which is a major feature of the east and south fronts of the house. The main five by three bay two-storey block has architrave surrounds to its windows, cornice and parapet. To the west is a long, lower range of 9 bays, part recessed, almost as if an older 17th century house had been incorporated, although there is no real evidence for such in the fabric. Pleasing pedimented stables lie to the west. Inside is a fine stuccoed entrance hall, cantilevered staircase with a delicate wrought iron balustrade and some good marble fireplaces. By 1980 the house had become a club, originally for workers in the iron and steel industry, but later a public facility. In 1996 it was sold off and converted into a hotel. (2)