Bedford Hall

Bedford Hall is a late medieval farmhouse, modified over several centuries and now converted into two two-storey houses with attics. The architect is unknown.

The building is constructed of hand-made English garden wall bond brick beneath graduated stone and slate roofs, with some timber framing retained. It is H-shaped in plan.

The front elevation is virtually symmetrical, with doors to each of the wings. Both wings have five-light windows on the ground and first floors, with three-light attic windows and modern timber bargeboards to the gables above. The central range features a three-light mullioned-and-transomed window with a wooden-framed cross-window to the ground floor and a wooden mullioned and transomed window to the first floor. The side elevations are similar, each windowless with tall projecting brick chimney stacks containing twin diagonally-set chimneys. A modern single-storey addition has been added to the left elevation, and a doorway has been cut through one of the chimney stacks to provide access to it. The rear elevation is more irregular. Both wings have doors protected by modern porches and five-light ground and first floor windows; the north east wing has a three-light attic window. A gabled former stair tower is attached to the south western wing. The central range has an attached 20th-century WC, two former three-light windows now modified, and a tall chimney stack rising from the eaves. All windows have been rendered to give the impression of being constructed in stone and subsequently painted. Rendered plinth detailing appears on the side and rear elevations.

The south west range contains a front living room and rear kitchen to the ground floor with timber beams featuring double chamfers and broach stops, together with modern fireplaces. A small utility room off the kitchen is located in the former stair turret; its inner wall contains two recesses, either of which may have been a doorway from the house to the stair. The kitchen also contains a quarter-turn staircase with a batten-plank door with ventilation holes beneath. The first floor has two bedrooms with a dividing wall containing partially-exposed wallposts with deep arch braces supporting a roof truss above. The door to the shower room in the former stair turret has a wooden frame with a deep four-centred arched head.

The north east range has a rear dining kitchen with a single spine beam and modern fireplace, and a front kitchen with access to a modern extension through a door inserted into a former fireplace. A corridor off the dining kitchen leads to the front door. Off this corridor, a door gives access to the living room occupying the central range of the building. This room contains two substantial axial beams of deep quarter-round moulding suggesting a date of around 1600, together with exposed ceiling joists, some of which appear to be early while others are later replacements. A modern fire surround is positioned on the rear wall. A modern staircase leads off the kitchen to the first floor, where there are three bedrooms, a bathroom and a WC. Some reused beams are visible.

An attic floor runs throughout the building. The presence of windows at both ends of the north east wing and the front end of the south west wing indicates the attic was intended for storage or accommodation. The roof structure contains timbers of two periods: the late-medieval hall-house and the subsequent truncation and remodelling of about 1600. The truss at the upper end of the hall range has a canted tie beam, angle struts and formerly a king strut (now removed), and displays smoke blackening indicating the hall was formerly open, dating prior to approximately the mid-16th century. The north east range has roof timbers of poorer quality including a kingpost truss, tiebeam and purlins of around 1600 or later, with some late-18th or 19th century replacements.

Bedford Hall is of medieval origins, originally consisting of a central open hall with a solar wing at the upper or south west end and a lower wing at the north east end. It is one of a significant group of medieval halls on the rural hinterland of Leigh, including the nearby Sandy Pool Farm, Hopecarr Hall (now demolished), and Peel Hall at Ince, Morley's Hall at Astley and Kirklees Hall at Aspull. Around 1600, Bedford Hall was substantially rebuilt and modernised: a ceiling was inserted into the open hall to create a chamber above, and the lower wing was demolished and replaced by a new, smaller lower wing. A further modernisation took place in the mid-17th century with the replacement of the timber-framing by brickwork and the insertion of brick mullioned windows plastered to give the impression of stone. By 1928 the hall had been divided to form two separate dwellings, with the north east range and central ranges forming the larger dwelling and the south west range the smaller. Separate doors were provided in each of the wings and separate staircases were fitted, making redundant an earlier rear stair turret. Rear porches and a single-storey addition to the left return were added during the 20th century.