Samlesbury Hall

Samlesbury Hall is a large house of the 14th and 16th centuries, built for the Southworth family, lords of the manor. The site was formerly moated and is believed to have originally contained a courtyard surrounded by four ranges of buildings; only those forming the west side and part of the north side now remain.

The Great Hall, on the north side, may have been built around 1322 to 1330 to replace the Old Hall, which was destroyed in a Scots raid of 1322, though it displays characteristics suggesting a later date—some sources attribute it to the 15th century. The west wing dates to the early or mid-16th century. The hall has undergone some restoration in the 19th century. Both sections rest on stone plinths.

The Great Hall is cruck-framed, consisting of four bays with a single storey and a two-storey oriel positioned close to the junction with the west wing. The west wing is box-framed, four bays with two storeys. The end and inner walls of the wing, together with the upper level of the oriel, are filled with a black and white quatrefoil pattern and topped by an embattled wall plate from which spring coving to the eaves. The first floor features three original oriels with carved wooden sills; the ground floor has four 19th-century windows and an entrance porch. The roof is slate.

The south wall of the hall contains an early 16th-century polygonal oriel with an oblong gabled upper level, but the remainder dates from circa 1865 restoration work: it features herringbone timber framing with two inserted upper-level windows, and the original entrance to the fourth bay has been blocked and concealed. The gable retains its original herringbone timber framing.

The rear walls differ substantially from the fronts. The rear of the hall is 16th-century rubble with a very large external three-stage chimney, flanked at the second stage by small two-light windows. The rear of the wing is 16th-century red brick with some diaper patterning, incorporating on both floors tall stone mullion windows with cinquefoil lights; one at the south end features 15th-century tracery said to have come from Whalley Abbey. This elevation has three external chimneys, the largest being of stone rising almost to eaves level, all topped by tall diagonally shafted flues. The wing was extended northward by two bays in matching style and materials in the 19th century.

The interior of the hall originally contained five full cruck trusses. The first two were altered when the north wall and oriel were constructed in the early 16th century; one forms the east wall with herringbone struts, while the other consists of full blades with an arch-braced collar supporting a braced king strut rising to an upper collar. The central truss also has raking struts, a third collar, and cross bracing. Each blade carries two moulded through-purlins with cusped wind braces.

Until around 1830, the upper (west) end of the hall had a dais with a coved canopy flanked by moulded speres and low cusp-headed doorways, while the lower end contained a moveable oak screen elaborately carved. Around 1840, the canopy was replaced by a "minstrels' gallery" incorporating dismembered parts of the screen, chiefly its middle rail (carved with the name Thomas Southworth and the date 1532) and its three barbarically carved pinnacles, which now rise from the front of the gallery to an embattled cross beam with a vine leaf frieze originally forming the head of the canopy. The spere posts and doorways remain.

The interior of the west wing includes a former chapel rising through both floors at the south end with a gallery; an entrance hall with a 19th-century staircase; a parlour or dining room with a stone chimney piece carved with the inscription "Thomas Sothworth HB T IR A° DNI Mo CCCCCLV"; and an ante room. The first floor contains a long chamber with a moulded stone fireplace. Both floors display exceptionally fine heavily moulded wall posts, beams, tie beams, carved wall plates, spandrels, and arch bracing, though the construction is not uniform and shows evidence of alterations.

Samlesbury Hall is comparable to the few other major examples of late medieval timber-framed halls in the region, including Ordsall, Rufford, Smithills, and Speke.