Medieval Hall Adjoining North East Corner Of Goxhill Hall

Medieval Hall adjoining the north-east corner of Goxhill Hall (formerly listed as The Old Hall)

This is a late 14th to early 15th-century first-floor hall, formerly part of a larger complex. It is a Grade I listed building of considerable architectural importance.

The structure is built of squared limestone and limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. Internal walls are faced with squared chalk, and later patching to windows combines ashlar and brick. The roof is pantile, and the building was substantially renovated in 1976–78, with late 18th-century roof alterations and blocking of first-floor windows undertaken at various points.

The building is rectangular in plan, comprising a ground-floor undercroft with three by two vaulting bays and a single-room first-floor hall. It rises two storeys over three bays. A distinctive octagonal stair turret is positioned at the south-west angle. The foundations are marked by a moulded ashlar plinth, and buttresses with set-offs run between bays and at the angles, with diagonal buttresses to the east and angle buttresses to the west. A moulded first-floor cill string course, moulded cornice, and coped ashlar parapet define the upper storey.

The south front features a pointed doorway at the south-west angle, now incorporated within an adjoining house extension, with arch mouldings that die into chamfered jambs. Three ground-floor windows have been inserted into enlarged original openings: a central 12-pane sliding sash of 18th–19th-century date, and two casements with leaded lights from the 17th–18th centuries. A modern steel spiral staircase leads to an ogee-headed first-floor doorway set in a chamfered segmental-pointed reveal, with a small rectangular window to the right. Three large pointed moulded windows are blocked with closely-jointed ashlar and continuous hoodmould. The stair turret rises above the parapet, pierced with cusped quatrefoils and finished with coping and a hipped roof.

The north side is similar in character, though the lower section is partly obscured by an adjoining cattle-shed. The east front has two inserted ground-floor doors and a small chamfered slit window above the plinth. A large moulded first-floor window displays a re-set triangular head with an inserted moulded central mullion and twin round arches. The lower section of this window is blocked with four courses of ashlar, with brick above containing two 20th-century two-light wood mullion windows with leaded lights incorporating stained glass arms.

The west front has a blocked inserted ground-floor door on the left. A pointed first-floor door to the right cuts through the string course, with arch mouldings dying into jambs and a square-headed hoodmould bearing carved shields in the spandrels. Above this is a blocked triangular-headed three-light window with Perpendicular tracery.

The interior undercroft is spanned by quadripartite vaulting with a plastered brick ceiling. The ribs are chamfered ashlar and die into octagonal piers and responds with moulded and chamfered bases. A chamfered segmental-pointed arch frames the south door, and the floor is 20th-century brick. The first floor is accessed through a square-headed door to a stone spiral staircase. Doors and windows throughout feature cusped ogee heads, hoodmoulds, and finely-moulded reveals. A blocked chimney is set within the north wall. The roof above is a five-bay structure with tie beams, king posts, raking struts to principal rafters, and staggered butt purlins.

Fragments of early 15th-century stained glass recovered from the west window bear painted faces and grotesques, indicating the high quality of the original decoration.

This is an important and imposing medieval building, documented in C. Nattes's drawing of 1796, held in the Banks Collection at Lincoln City Library.