Alston Old Hall

SD 63 SW LONGRIDGE ALSTON LANE (OFF)

11/121 Alston Old Hall 8.11.49 II*

House, with timber-framed hall possibly of the early C15th, now clad in sandstone rubble of the C17th and later and with a slate roof. 2 storeys, with central hall section of one storey. South front has a cross-wing at the right-hand end with a large window with plain stone surround on each floor. To its left is a central section which projects forwards with a catslide roof. It has a 3-light window with crude mullions and plain reveals, with a door with plain reveals to its right. To its left is a bay set back with cement window surrounds. The chimneys are to the right of the cross-wing and to the left of the central section. At the rear are 2 wings. The western one has a 3-light window with outer chamfer and inner hollow chamfer on each floor, and a blocked one-light window with round head on the 1st floor of its west wall. The north wall of the east wing has a one-light chamfered window on the ground floor and a 4-light window on the 1st floor with outer chamfer, inner hollow chamfer, and hood. Interior. The hall remains open to tie beam level and is of 2 unequal bays, the principal posts being braced to the tie beams. Above the ceiling there are said to be king posts and smoke-blackened rafters. The front wall is now to the south of the principal posts, but mortise holes suggest that the beam they support was a wall plate and not an aisle plate. The southern post of the spere truss has had its lower part and its brace removed a now supported on a later firehood bressumer. The upper part of the firehood has now been removed to form a gallery. At the east end of the north wall is a timber doorway with ogee head, possibly an entrance to a stair to an earlier wing on the site of the present cross-wing. The east wall of the hall is timber-framed, but structurally separate from the adjoining truss and possibly associated with a C17th rebuilding of the wing. A rare survival of a medieval timber-framed hall.

Listing NGR: SD6116133535