Ordsall Hall

Ordsall Hall is a large house substantially dating from the early 16th century, with significant additions of around 1639, and restored and extended in 1896–97 by the architect Alfred Derbyshire. It is timber-framed with heavy slate roofs, extended in brick.

The main hall building comprises an open hall with two cross gables, a single two-storeyed bay to the right, and a two-storeyed gable to the left. This left gable incorporates remains of an original 14th-century house. The central hall is framed in small framing with quatrefoil panels, probably late 16th or early 17th-century work that was extensively renewed during the 19th-century restoration. A doorway to the cross passage opens to the right of the hall.

The exterior features a long line of continuous mullioned windows at upper level below coved eaves. The small gable to the left of the hall has a high canted mullioned and transomed window to the ground floor at the dais end, with a small four-light attic window above. A projecting gable to the right beyond the cross passage is similarly framed, with a massive canted full-height bay window that dates from around 1600. The present entrance lies to the right of this range, which originally comprised the service end of the hall. The brick gable to the left of the hall was rebuilt in the later 19th century but incorporates internally the remains of a 14th-century building. The building extends beyond this gabled wing with a wide shallow wing projecting further, largely of later 19th-century construction.

A wing of around 1639 projects from the right-hand side of the original range, replacing an earlier wing. It was formerly a separate dwelling and is constructed in brick with stone dressings. It is two-storeyed with an irregular plan of five windows and an advanced gable to the right of centre, which houses a doorway in a timber gabled porch. The gable has chamfered angles. Mullioned windows of two, three and four lights appear at first-floor level, with a stepped mullion in the gable apex. Lower windows were renewed in the early 20th century. Axial and end wall stacks are present.

The rear of the hall was substantially rebuilt during the 19th century in buff brick with red brick dressings. Two four-centred arched traceried windows with continuous string course and hoodmould are divided by buttresses. The dais gable has a corresponding rear gable with paired mullioned and transomed windows on each floor, and mock timbering coved in the gable apex. An additional gable beyond has brick mullioned windows. Three parallel gables to the left of the hall range are similarly detailed; the inner gable features wide mullioned and transomed windows on each floor and mock framing in the gable apex with coving. The outer gable echoes the detailing of the 17th-century front wing it adjoins, with a stepped mullioned window in the attic, though the dressings are terracotta rather than stone.

The interior contains the main hall, which has been restored open to its roof. A spere-truss divides the former cross passage. Quatrefoil panelling appears in the screens wall beyond, which has three four-centred arched doorways to former service rooms and coving above. The hall has two principal bays, and moulded shafts carry a cambered tie-beam with king-post and panelling. Cusped wind-braces form quatrefoil panelling in three tiers. Intermediate cambered collars are present. The wall behind the dais is framed in large irregular panels and is said to be a survivor of the earliest building on the site, a 14th-century structure, with a crown-post roof surviving over the 'Star Chamber' in the adjoining wing. The 'Star Chamber' behind the dais end of the hall contains a massive stone fireplace which may also survive from this earliest building, though the panelled ceiling, embellished with gilded stars, is probably of the late 16th century.