Alston Old Hall

This is a house, likely originating as a timber-framed hall possibly dating to the early 15th century. It was subsequently clad in sandstone rubble during the 17th century and later, with a slate roof. The house is two storeys high, with a central hall section that is one storey tall. The south front features a cross-wing on the right-hand end, containing large windows with plain stone surrounds on both floors. To the left of the cross-wing, a central section projects forward under a catslide roof, displaying a three-light window with crude mullions and plain reveals. To the right of this window is a door with plain reveals, and to its left, a recessed bay with cement window surrounds. Chimneys are located to the right of the cross-wing and to the left of the central section. The rear of the house has two wings. The western wing has a three-light window with an outer chamfer and an inner hollow chamfer on each floor, along with a blocked one-light window with a round head on its first floor west wall. The north wall of the east wing contains a one-light chamfered window on the ground floor, and a four-light window on the first floor featuring an outer chamfer, an inner hollow chamfer, and a hood.

The hall remains open to the tie beam level and consists of two bays of unequal size. The principal posts are braced to the tie beams, and there are said to be king posts and smoke-blackened rafters above the ceiling. Originally, the front wall was situated north of the principal posts, but mortise holes indicate that the beam they formerly supported was a wall plate, not an aisle plate. The southern post of the spire truss has had its lower part and brace removed and is now supported on a later firehood bressumer, with the upper part of the firehood removed to form a gallery. A timber doorway with an ogee head is located at the east end of the north wall; this is possibly an entrance to a stair leading to an earlier wing that once occupied the site of the present cross-wing. The east wall of the hall is timber-framed, structurally separate from the adjoining truss, and may be linked to a 17th-century rebuilding of the wing. It represents a rare survival of a medieval timber-framed hall.