Swarland Old Hall

Swarland Old Hall is a manor house dating to the third quarter of the 17th century, possibly designed by Robert Trollope, though a doorhead is dated 173…, and incorporating earlier fabric. A right return was remodelled as a screen wall in the late 18th century, and a rear wing and outshuts were added in the 18th century, with alterations in the 19th century. The front and screen wall are of squared stone, while other elevations are of rubble with cut dressings. Pantile roofs are present, except for Welsh slates on the extension and outshuts; stacks have been rebuilt in 20th-century brick.

The house has a front block with end outshuts and a shorter parallel rear wing, extended to the west. The south elevation is two storeys and an attic in height, with four narrow bays. A flush-panelled door is positioned right-of-centre, set in a wave-moulded surround featuring a frieze with triglyphs, masks, and a worn, relief-carved date panel, topped with a cornice. Former cross windows now have renewed 20-pane sashes on the ground floor and paired 8-pane casements above, within cable-moulded surrounds under semicircular pediments; those on the first floor have carved keystones. Central, early 20th-century gabled wood dormers feature paired 4-pane casements. A coped gable is present on the left end, with moulded kneelers and a left-end stack. Single-storey outshuts flank the sides, with paired 4-pane casements on the left and paired 6-pane casements on the right.

The right return displays a 6-pane sash set within an older chamfered surround, itself set within an earlier doorway, with a cross window above. The upper part of the return is a tall, stepped embattled screen wall with three large blind Gothick arches above a band, alongside a reset moulded window head with a worn inscription. Further to the left is a stone shield bearing a carved heron. The left return shows a blocked, chamfered window within the outshut on the front block. The left gable end of the rear wing extension features two 8-pane Yorkshire sashes and a 4-pane sash above, while behind it, the taller gable end of the wing reveals a chamfered attic window and an older, steeper roofline, with reverse-stepped blocks beneath the present coping. The rear elevation displays a 4-pane sash to the stairwell, and paired 4-pane sashes above it.

The interior ground floor front features an old cornice in the dining room and a late 18th-century fireplace with contemporary ironwork in a bedroom. Fielded-panel doors are present, as is a round arch with panelled jambs leading to the stairwell in the rear wing, which is a dog-leg design to the first floor and openwell to the attic, with cut strings, stick balusters, and a ramped handrail. An east bedroom has a wood bolection-moulded fireplace surround with a cornice. Upper cruck roofs are present, with trusses concealed above collar level.

Historical records indicate that Swarland was the seat of the Heslerigg family from the 14th century until the early 18th century. A rear wing west wall, 0.4 metres thick, may have been part of a 16th or early 17th-century strong house. The date of remodelling is unclear; the house is attributed to Robert Trollope, but the doorhead date is half a century after his death, possibly referring to a change of ownership. A single-storey, flat-roofed 20th-century extension on the north side is not considered historically significant.