Dunstan Hall

Dunstan Hall is a house of complex medieval and later development, with origins possibly dating to before 1300 in the form of a turret base belonging to the Dunstan family. The main block was rebuilt in the early 14th century for the Wetwang family. The south wall and turret were rebuilt and raised in the 15th century. A major remodelling occurred in the 16th or early 17th century when the west end of the main block was rebuilt, the east end extended, and a stair wing was constructed. The south front was refenestrated and the east extension removed in the mid-17th century. Further alterations, including a new north-west wing, were made around 1706. The building underwent comprehensive restoration in 1939 by H.L. Honeyman for Mrs Ursula Merz, including the rebuilding of the north-west wing.

The construction employs roughly-shaped whinstone in the lower turret; large squared stone in the east and north walls of the main block and upper turret; heavy rubble to the south wall of the main block; whinstone rubble to the west end of the main block and stair wing; and squared stone to the north wing. Cut sandstone quoins and dressings are used throughout. The roofs are of pantile with stone slates to the eaves on the stair wing. The plan comprises a main block with a south-west turret, a central stair wing on the north, and an L-plan north-west wing.

The south elevation is divided into two sections. The main block, on the right, is two storeys with four bays. A half-glazed door in the second bay sits in a chamfered surround with hoodmould and a worn lintel inscription including a possible date of 1652, with a narrow 6-pane casement immediately to its right. To the left is a 12-pane fixed window in a chamfered surround with hoodmould; the right bays contain two 12-pane sashes in openings with narrow moulded surrounds, sills and cornices. First-floor windows are 15-pane sashes in similar openings, except for a smaller 12-pane sash on the left in a reduced opening. The right gable is coped on a moulded kneeler, with a stepped old brick ridge and right-end stacks on stone bases. To the left is a three-storey turret with small loops, those to the upper floors chamfered, and a monopitch roof with crowstepped end copings. The turret's right return shows a blocked first-floor doorway with a lintel dated 1705, largely hidden by ivy, and a small casement window. At second-floor level is a doorway with a timber lintel and inserted casement, above which are large whinstone corbels that probably carried a garderobe seat. The right return displays blocked 14th-century lancets to the ground and first floors and a small blocked loop to the first floor left; to the right are three blocked chamfered doorways to the former east extension, the upper two with paired casement windows inserted.

The west elevation is in two parts. The old house section on the right features a gabled end to the main block with 2-light and 3-light mullioned windows with leaded glazing and hoodmoulds to the ground floor and attic, and a 15-pane sash in a bolection-moulded surround on the first floor. The turret on the far right has a 4-pane casement in a chamfered surround to the first floor and a chamfered set-back at second-floor level, with a small casement window above. The left section is the 1939 wing. Its right part has three large ground-floor windows with a date panel above the centre and four first-floor windows in alternating-block surrounds, with a slightly-left-of-centre stepped ridge stack. A slightly-projecting gabled left end bay has rusticated quoins and 16-pane sash windows, with an attic slit under a coped gable on moulded kneelers.

The north elevation shows the main block with an 8-pane Yorkshire sash to the ground floor on the left and a 12-pane sash in an enlarged 17th-century window, formerly of two lights, at first-floor right. An extruded pent porch with a boarded door and 4-pane casement is on the left return. The right gabled stair wing has mullioned windows on both floors, the lower partly concealed by the 1939 wing. The inner return of the L-plan 1939 section shows a vertical-panelled door in a chamfered 4-centred doorway from the original north-west wing.

The 1939 wing also reuses quoins, gable kneelers, coping and window surrounds from Gloster Hill in Warkworth parish.

The interior of the ground floor of the main block contains an early 18th-century panelled room with a bolection-moulded fireplace, an arched half-glazed cupboard door, a moulded dado rail and cornice. The dining room has a 17th-century chamfered fireplace. The base of the turret features an arched vault, possibly an insertion. A stone winder stair is present. The first floor retains remains of early 18th-century panelling in one room. Reused from Gloster Hill are three 17th-century fireplaces (one in the 1939 wing and two in the main block) and three jointed upper-cruck roof trusses in the 1939 wing.