Martholme

MARTHOLME, GREAT HARWOOD

House, formerly the manor house of the Hesketh family. Medieval in origin with significant alterations and additions dating from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The building is constructed of rendered sandstone rubble and coursed sandstone with quoins, roofed in slate with a ridge chimney and a projecting side wall chimney. It follows a T-shaped plan formed by the remains of the service end of a medieval hall with its gabled service wing (remodelled in the 16th century), combined with a 17th-century three-bay crosswing projecting to both front and rear on the right (east) side. This crosswing encloses an originally detached medieval timber-framed building, possibly a kitchen. The structure rises to three storeys on the left gable, with the wing two storeys high.

On the left of the left gable is part of the wall of the lower end of the medieval hall, featuring a moulded arched doorway of possibly 14th-century date leading to a screen passage, with a similar doorway visible at the further end inside and a blocked cross window above. The gable wall of the service wing displays three square-headed windows with round-headed lights on each of its three floors. Between the upper two floors is a sculptured stone panel bearing an eagle displaying two heads (the Hesketh arms) and lettered in the corners "1577 = Thomas Hesketh T.H."

Close to the angle where the crosswing meets is the present front door, which opens onto a passage originally open to the elements, and a first-floor cross window with a hoodmould, its right end covered by the side wall of the east wing. The wing itself has two three-light double-chamfered stone mullion windows with hoodmoulds on this side (one per floor) and similar windows in the other walls: in the gable, one of four lights; in the side wall, five and four lights at ground floor and two, four and four lights at first floor respectively, together with small firewindows on each floor at the junction of the second and third bays and at the end of the third bay. Projecting from the first bay on this side is a large chimney stack with rebuilt top, which shows corbelling in the masonry at ground floor level. The rear of this wing has a part-projecting chimney stack. The rear of the service wing shows at first floor a window with two cusped lights, with mullioned windows above and below. The two wings are linked by a short two-storey wall which is not structurally tied in.

Interior features include a screen passage with two pointed-arch chamfered doorways to the service wing and two low and wide doorways in the opposite wall of this wing, apparently external doors into an originally open passageway between the service wing and the detached kitchen. The east wing contains timber framing from the medieval building, including a stone plinth, timber sill, wall posts and box framing braced at the top level, with at least two kingpost roof trusses with raking struts and evidence of a smoke bay. A very large stone arched fireplace is present, formerly supported by an external buttress. The structure shows first-floor joists laid on top of the principal rails, indicating that the upper floor was a later insertion.