Former Coach House To Marsden Hall

This is a former coach house, likely dating to the middle to later 18th century, and altered since. It was probably originally part of Marsden Hall, and has recently suffered fire damage. The building is constructed of watershot coursed sandstone rubble with quoins, and has a stone slate roof. It has a broad L-plan, with a rear gable facing the street and a wider front gable facing Marsden Hall.

The west facade, which is gabled, features a stone balcony to the first floor, running around from the north side and almost the full width of the building. The gable has cavetto-moulded coping with kneelers and a large urn finial, which once supported a weathervane. The ground floor has two wide, round-headed wagon doorways, offset to the right, with 20th-century board double doors, splayed voussoirs and keystones interrupted by the balcony. Between the doorways is a square-headed window in a 17th-century style, with a double-chamfered surround and a hoodmould with shield stops, now boarded. The first floor, accessed by the balcony with cast-iron stick-baluster railings, has an unusual seven-light mullioned window. Four of the lights have damaged six-pane glazing boarded internally, while the others are boarded externally. A pair of blocked doorways to the right have stone lugs for outward-opening doors, and a boarded single-light window is on the right. The gable has a round-headed stone-louvred window with a plain surround.

The north side includes external steps to the balcony, a doorway at the top of the steps with a plain surround, a former doorway below the balcony which has been altered to a window, and a square-headed doorway with a chamfered quoined surround, as well as tall windows and a sliding door at ground floor. There are also four square windows at first floor, all boarded. The south side, set back beyond the first bay, has a rectangular sundial angled slightly to the right, with a moulded corbel, frieze lettered "Lat 53 49 N / Lon 2 10 W" and "AD 1837”, and a shaped, panelled face inscribed: "Test well Thine Heart, Thy will, Thy words, Thy way / And the True Light will guide to Glorious Day”. A three-window portion is set back and includes a blocked doorway, blocked square windows on each floor to the left, and two-light windows to the right with flat-faced mullions. The rear gable, also facing the street, has two blocked doorways at ground floor, an inserted loading doorway above to the right, and a three-dimensional cruciform finial. The interior is not accessible.

The building was possibly converted to a handloom weaving workshop around 1800, as evidenced by the mullioned window at the west end and the inserted loading doorway at the east end. It forms a group with Marsden Hall, approximately 150 metres west.