Chingle Old Hall (With Bridge Over Moat)

SD 53 NE 5/123 11.11.1966

WHITTINGHAM WHITTINGHAM LANE(off)Chingle Old Hall (with bridge over moat)

GII Farmhouse,now house;probably earlier C17,extended in C19,altered in C20.Brick,now covered with white-painted roughcast;slate roof.Now extended cruciform plan(C19 extension to rear,C20 enlargement to left),but formerly single-depth baffle-entry,probably three bays,with large projecting porch at junction of second and third.Two storeys;two-storey gabled porch has wide doorway with cambered head,old board door with ornamental iron furnishings,and small square peep window in each side wall(that in the left side blocked).Otherwise, all openings are of less interest,being C19 or C20.Square chimney stack behind ridge in line with porch.Interior:altered,but housepart in second bay has C18 stone fireplace with moulded surround,corbelled jambs and moulded cornice,and former kitchen in third bay has small inglenook fireplace with stop-chamfered bressummer;this room has a vertical rectangular recess in the rear wall with a wooden cross set in,and the housepart has ex-situ stop-chamfered cambered beams(possibly formerly bressummers)carrying modern softwood joists;at first floor,the porch has a blocked four-light mullioned window in the east wall,and the room over the kitchen has a similar blocked window in the front wall and two lights of another in the east wall.A cavity in the front wall of this room(said to be a priest hole)reveals an outer layer of woven reed wattle;and a cavity beneath the flagged floor of the kitchen fireplace is said to have served the same purpose.Moated site(now rare in this district),with bridge in front of porch and path approaching it flanked by walls of handmade brick with pitched stone copings.

Listing NGR: SD5568935805