Gawsworth Old Hall

Gawsworth Old Hall is a country house dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, with additions and alterations from the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is timber framed with whitewashed wattle and daub infill, brick infill in English garden wall bond, and a stone slate roof. It originally formed a quadrangular plan but now comprises a three-sided courtyard arrangement after approximately half the structure was lost.

The courtyard front features a doorway to the right of centre with a four-centered arch and a first-floor oriel window with coving beneath and a gable above decorated with carved bargeboards. Six bays of chevron strut work flank either side of the doorway, with quatrefoil panels above and coving to the eaves. Three-light casement windows occupy the ground and first floors at the centre of each side, with a further three-light casement on the ground floor left and a three-light window at right angles to it forming the corner. Projecting wings extend right and left; the left wing has an additional projection in the re-entrant angle with 20th-century cladding simulating timber framing with chevron strut work. The gable end is similar, with a central chimney stack bearing a square clock face board and a circular face, and decorated bargeboards.

The left-hand wing has small framing measuring 4 by 15 cells, with a 19th-century semi-octagonal bay window of brick base and panelled parapet. The right wing rises to three storeys above a brick basement with ashlar window surrounds. Close studding runs across the ground floor, with a continuous band of mullioned and transomed windows including a semi-octagonal bay at the left of centre. The first floor is slightly jettied with a moulded bressumer. A lower room has decorated cells with continuous mullioned and transomed fenestration. The semi-octagonal bay rises to the third storey with a row of decorated cells below a mullioned and transomed window. The gable end incorporates 18th and 19th-century brick walling with 20th-century fenestration.

The entrance front displays simulated close studding on both floors with middle rails and 18th-century sash windows. A stone chimney breast stands at the left with moulded brick stack; at the right a brick chimney breast painted white has a brick stack and bears a reset rectangular stone inscribed with the arms of Sir Edward Fitton and the date 1570. The door between the two chimney breasts is set within a 20th-century moulded doorcase with broken segmental pediment.

The interior contains several notable spaces. The Library has ceiling beams introduced in the 19th century and a 19th-century fireplace incorporating some 16th or 17th-century marquetry panels to the overmantel. The Long Hall features a series of longitudinal ceiling beams and an altered fireplace with a reset strapwork panel to the overmantel. A staircase was altered in 1920 incorporating newels from an earlier staircase. The Chapel dates from 1701 and retains ceiling and wainscot panelling of raised and fielded profile.

The Dining Room has chamfered ceiling beams with angle braces and a 20th-century fireplace with an imposed timber mantel shelf. The Drawing Room contains small framing to the walls with ovolo-moulded end-stopped ceiling beams and ovolo-moulded window frames, mullions and transomes; the hearth was originally larger as evidenced by the end stopping of the ceiling beams. The present fireplace is of 20th-century date but retains a 17th-century overmantel. Small framing is evident in several other ground floor rooms, including an inglenook fireplace with bressumer in the Green Room, which has a diminished hearth.

On the first floor, the Gallery has a queen post truss. The Solar features a truss with cambered tie beam, arched braces and angled struts. The Billiard Room has arched braces supporting the principals.