Peel Hall

Peel Hall

Formerly a mansion, now a farmhouse, dated 1637 for Henry Hardware IV but substantially reduced in size by 1812. The building is constructed of tooled ashlar Manley sandstone with a hipped Welsh slate roof and two massive stone chimneys on the main façade. A brick chimney with 17th-century style stacks stands on the lesser range. The style is Artisan Mannerist. The original building was probably a large rectangular house with short crosswings facing east; it now forms an L-shaped plan.

The south garden front presents a symmetrical composition of three storeys over basement with five bays. Moulded bands run at the first and second floors and on the blocking course. Large blank chimney stacks flank either side of the three-bay centre. The central bay projects slightly and contains a door approached by four steps. The doorcase features a late 19th-century restored Tuscan architrave with a moulded stone surround and a fanlight with stone mullions. All mullions are half-round to the front and cyma-moulded to the rear. A 3-light mullioned and transomed window sits in a moulded surround, with a 4-light mullioned window above in the blocking course. The remaining bays contain mullioned and transomed windows on the ground and first floors only. The right end bay has modillions at the cornice, and the right side features a two-storey canted bay window.

The north and east fronts reveal the remains of a sumptuous great hall at first-floor level. A semi-circular headed doorcase with strapwork in the spandrels displays an ornate date plaque reading "ANO 1637 DMI" below a blocked Venetian window motif with a segmental pediment. To the left is a column capital and voussoir from a similar doorcase, with a concealed counterpart internally. On the east front, an elliptical medallion flanked by Renaissance pilasters appears above another doorcase. This façade also shows the large moulded fireplace of the hall and two blocked doorcases, one above the other, at the right end.

The three-storey west front, slightly reduced in height, contains four bays with a mixture of 4-light mullioned and transomed windows. A late 19th-century porch hides a blocked 4-centred arched doorway.

Interior entry from the south front leads into a room containing a restored oak staircase with an open well, two levels of pierced splat balusters, a moulded handrail, square newels with finials, and balusters set on the open string. A blocked semi-circular headed doorcase, formerly opening into the great hall, faces the front. A moulded stone doorcase and a chamfered 4-centred arched fireplace occupy the room, with a blocked depressed arch to the fireplace below in the basement.

The minor range contains a fine semi-circular arched doorcase on plain columns with a slot for a wooden screen, carried below on a massive corbel. Remaining features are vernacular, including some exposed beams and doors with two moulded panels.

This represents an intriguing portion of what must have been a fine Jacobean mansion. The east entrance front and northern crosswing have been demolished, leaving only the remains of a central first-floor great hall of considerable magnificence, evident only as blocked openings on the exterior walls. Its advanced plan may be compared to the contemporary Raynham Hall in Norfolk. Colonel Roger Whitley entertained King William III here on his way to Ireland and the Battle of the Boyne.