A description of Hemsworth High Hall-A typical Georgian mansion.

One of the most architectural interests around this time was on the work of an Italian called Andrea Palladio. He studied the Romans Slender columns and elegant proportions, and built many buildings for rich noblemen. These were imitated by British architects and the style became known as Palladian. Many of these mansions were built on top of hills, to allow every one who lived and passed by the village to see were the lord lived, and also to show that he was very wealthy. They also faced south, so they would have sunlight facing the front of the building all day long. When walking up to the house you would have to pass the imposing gates and up the grand and winding drive to reach the characteristic mansion. The purpose of the long and winding drive was to allow visitors to see the mansion from every angle possible. When the visitor finally gets up to the house he would first tie up his horse on the hitching hook and use the boot scraper to get rid of any mud on the bottom of there shoes. The central doorway is reached by a flight of nine shallow stone steps, leading onto a handsome porch with two pairs of delicately crafted Tuscan pillars. Above the door there was a beautiful stained glass fanlight and resting on the pillars is a parapet which shows the owners of the country mansion were rich. The whole of the mansion was built out of stone, as brick was seen as common. Many rich men have got to have the stone quarried and brought to the construction site as stone was not usually found locally. Hemsworth High Hall did not have this problem as they had there own quarry on the land, with the stone being carved to the right size by stone masons on site. The whole of the mansion is symmetrical, with the main block and two wings. The east and west wings have balustading and parapets lining the top of them. There were also two Tuscan balls in the middle of the wigs, which were sadly thrown off the top by vandals. In total there are twenty-one sash windows which were also symmetrical. The two wings are set back from the main building and were decorated with quoins, and there is also evidence that they were built later as the cellar is only under the main building. The back of the hall is plain because the visitors would never see it, so there was no point in spending money on it. The mansion was surrounded by lush gardens that had magnificent views in all directions, and had many exotic plant species imported from different Countries like Brazilian coffee plants. There is also an avenue of trees, with many fine examples of oak, ash and sycamore. Next to the gardens was the land were the animals grazed. To stop the sheep and cows from eating the tropical plants, a Ha-Ha wall is dug out. A Ha-Ha wall is a ditch with one very steep wall to stop the animals climbing up, and small footbridges allowed the owner to get across. During the Georgian age, may rich landowners wanted to show of there cumulated wealth so would spend much of there money on furnishing the inside and making the outside very decretive. Even if they did not have allot of money hey would try and give the impression that they were rich, or as it is all so called, a facade.