Simonstone Hall

Simonstone Hall is a large house that underwent significant enlargement and remodelling in the early 19th century, transforming a 17th-century building, with some alterations made in the 20th century. It is constructed from sandstone blocks with dressed quoins and features a three-span stone slate roof with gable coping and kneelers topped with spike finials, along with various chimney stacks. The building has a rectangular plan oriented on a north-south axis, measuring three large bays long and two wide, and stands two and a half storeys high. The roof ridges are now positioned at right angles to the main axis, creating three gables on the east and west fronts.

Designed in the Jacobean style, the house showcases tall multiple-light mullioned windows with hoodmoulds. The west front features a moulded doorway in the third bay, adorned with a carved coat of arms on the lintel. There are five-light windows on each side of the doorway, with four, two, and four-light windows above, as well as a two-light attic window. The set-back first bay includes a two-storey canted bay window, likely from the 20th century. The right return wall has a similar bay window at the ground floor and two mullioned windows above. The east garden front has a doorway aligned with the front entrance, with eight-light windows on each side, seven, two, and seven-light windows above, and stepped triple-light attic windows. The smaller north bay features one mullioned window at both the ground and first floors.

Inside, the original 17th-century three-bay house is believed to be on the eastern side. The dining room in the second bay has three boxed beams, while the drawing room in the third bay boasts two large beams with deeply undercut carved vines in the soffits, which are said to be the work of Italian craftsmen who worked at Gawthorpe in the 17th century, although they appear to be from the 19th century. Historically, the hall was the home of the Whittaker family in the 17th century.