Middlethorpe Hall is a 17th-century country house standing in 20 acres of grounds in Middlethorpe, York, North Yorkshire, England. It is currently used as a hotel. It is a perfectly symmetrical red brick and stone house built in 1699 and since 2008 has been owned by The National Trust. Description The house is quite close to the road which is unusual for its architectural standard. Like many grand houses of the time, it is influenced indirectly by Sir Christopher Wren, especially Hampton Court Palace with a similar horizontal skyline and pattern of red brick, white sash windows and stone quoins and window surrounds. The north entrance front of seven bays and three storeys plus a basement is surrounded by a stone eagle, the Barlow family crest. The pedimented porch over the front door is an early 19th-century addition and the curved railings and gates enclosing the forecourt were added in 1983. The south front, the main facade of the house, is surmounted by a raised stone parapet of three panels containing carved festoons and crowned by another stone eagle. It is more impressive than the north front because of the flanking wings added in the mid 18th century by Francis Barlow. The bays of these single storey additions are divided by pilasters with well carved composite capitals and are surmounted by a balustraded parapet. The front door leads straight into the stone-flagged entrance hall, as in a medieval house. Beyond to the south is a carved oak staircase with fluted and foliated balusters, a York motif, standing on steps with scrolled panelled ends. The staircase is supported by a Corinthian column and may have been moved at some point. The floor is paved with black and white marble squares. There is a panelled drawing room leading to an enormous ballroom occupying the western of the two wings added . The dining room dates from the original period and has round head panels flanked by Ionic pilasters. History The house was built in for Thomas Barlow, a prosperous master cutler who bought the Middlethorpe estate in 1698 as a bid to establish himself as a country gentleman. In 1712 Thomas Barlow and his son Francis went on the grand tour and let the house to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in their absence. Francis later served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1734–36. The house descended in the Barlow family to Frances