Old Hall Farmhouse

Old Hall Farmhouse is a former great hall, converted to a farmhouse and now derelict, dating from the 14th to the 19th centuries. The north wing has a front dating to around 1600, containing the upper room of the east end from around 1350, which was formerly used as a chapel. A south-east outshut block from around 1600 links the north wing to a southwest rectangular addition dating to the 19th century.

The 14th-century fabric is of coursed ashlar, while the 17th-century section is of Flemish bond brick with stone quoins and details, and the 19th-century addition is of coursed ashlar. The roofs are of stone slate and Welsh slate, pitched in style. The symmetrical north front of the 17th century has a central gabled entrance projecting forward from the two-storey elevation. Massive stone quoins separate the Flemish bond brick from the 14th-century coursed ashlar undercroft via a moulded string course at first-floor level. A round-headed central entrance has dressed stone, with altered first-floor and attic windows above. An original 17th-century seven-light mullioned and transomed window survives on the upper floor of the right bay; other fenestration consists of later insertions. The east gable has a 17th-century five-light mullioned and transomed window with a 19th-century inserted door to the upper storey. The south elevation has a five-light transomed mullioned window on the first storey and a four-light inserted mullioned window to the 14th-century undercroft. A moulded floor course rises one course to the left of an inserted door, adjacent to the junction with the south-east 17th-century outshut, which has a catslide roof. The single-storey south elevation has a four-light mullioned window. The southwest front of the 19th century is symmetrical, two storeys high and of five bays, with a central entrance. All windows are four-pane vertical sash windows in flat-faced surrounds with projecting cills and keystones, paired to each storey in bays 1, 2, 4, and 5. The rear eastern elevation is plain with one 19th-century upper window and a porch addition.

The interior of the north wing contains a 17th-century staircase to the upper floor from the entrance. The roof timbers from around 1350 survive across five bays, featuring a raised cruck with curved and braced collars and short struts above. The roof lacks a ridge piece; rafters meet above the upper purlin. A central purlin is braced above and below the principal rafters, with shaped braces forming quatrefoil panels containing three rafters per square. There is a moulded wall plate and collar braces. The manor, of which the great hall survives in part within this farmhouse, originally comprised a sequence of buildings around a courtyard on a moated site, none of which now stands intact. The listing also includes the 17th-century north front gate piers and wall. Archaeological Survey of Merseyside, Merseyside County Museums File ref 4890/1; VCH Lancashire IV,370.