Old Park Hall Farmhouse And Farmbuildings And Wall

NZ 23 SW SPENNYMOOR OLD PARK

5/63 Old Park Hall Farmhouse and attached farmbuildings and wall GV II

Farmhouse with attached farmbuilding and yard walls. 1901 rebuilding, for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, of medieval manor house, incorporating medieval masonry in north wall. Manor house extensively enlarged c.1747 for Thomas Wharton, M.D., A.M. (Thomas Grey, the poet, said to have been consulted about this work which was in the Gothic style). Sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings; some brick patching; Welsh slate roof on house and part of farm building; asbestos roof on lower farm building. L-plan house with yard on north side. North elevation has 2-storey, 3-bay house and 2-bay farm building; one-storey, 5-bay farmbuilding to left of this. At right end, one-storey attached outbuilding breaks forward from house; this,with walls c.one metre high, forms enclosure in front of house.

C20 gabled porch to central of 3 right bays has 2-centred-arched boarded door; 6 steps down to inner door under flat stone lintel. Similar lintels to 4-pane sashes to right of porch and on first floor, all with projecting sills; 4-light window of coarse sandstone to left of porch has 2-centred-arched heads, recessed soffits, and vertical iron bars. Quoins to left of these 3 bays. Blank bay adjacent on left links to elliptical-headed vehicle arch with boarded doors in block jambs and voussoirs, below 1901 two-centred-arched loft opening with painted stone surround. 3 ridge chimneys. Outbuilding at right has boarded door and 4-pane window on return facing yard, under monopitch roof. Walls have roll-moulded gabled coping in medieval style. One-storey range at left has boarded doors in first and third bays, the first in eroded moulded surround, the upper parts renewed in brick; 2-light window to right of this has mullion removed and elliptical-headed lights with recessed soffits. C20 window at right.

Rear elevation to garden: wing projects from left bays 4-panel door under overlight and flat stone lintel at right of wing; similar lintels to plain sashes, most paired, in all bays. Re-used medieval niche under dripmould at far right. Long farmbuilding, with 2 projections,blank except for one C20 window; 2 rows of blocked triangular vent holes, some with C20 vent pipes inserted.

Interior of house shows north wall c.one metre thick. Passage from door through wing has C18 Gothic door of high quality, with L hinges, once part of half-octagonal addition (shown in old photograph) built by Wharton. 1901 stair in wing.

Historical note: Grey was a frequent visitor, having been a fellow-student of Wharton's at Cambridge.

Sources: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, 3 II, pp.228-231.

R. Hunter Blair, Pencillin s,(m.s.in library of Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne), Vol.III.

Listing NGR: NZ2323133060