Whitley Hall Hotel

The Whitley Hall Hotel is a house dating back to the 16th century, with significant alterations and additions from the 17th and 18th centuries, and further changes in the 19th and 20th. It is a group value building of considerable importance. Constructed primarily of sandstone, the earliest parts of the building feature rubble construction, while the garden front is ashlar, and later 19th-century work is dressed. Stone slate roofs have been partially replaced with 20th-century tiles.

The building is arranged as a U-shaped range. The garden front, dating to around 1700, is a two-and-a-half-storey, seven-bay design built onto an earlier core. It is joined to a two-storey, three-bay wing from the 17th century on the left, and a two-storey, four-bay double wing, incorporating 17th, 19th, and 20th-century elements, on the right. The 1700 front has rusticated quoins. The central doorway is surrounded by elaborate mouldings, now partly rendered, with consoles and a broken segmental pediment. The ground floor bays feature 24-pane sashes in architraves, while the first floor has 12-pane sashes in architraves, with a sundial above the central window. There are two gables, each with a blind oeil-de-boeuf window.

The wing on the left has a chamfered plinth and a central, studded oak door from the 17th century, set within a quoined surround with a Tudor-arched lintel. It contains iron casements with leaded lights in tall architraves, with moulded kneelers and gable copings. The wing to the right includes a 1980 infill section with three windows on each floor, and a 19th-century bay with a door and window. Ashlar ridge stacks are present on the main range and wings.

The entrance front has an entrance recessed between two 19th-century, two-storey gabled projections. The door is surrounded by reeded stone with a frieze and cornice. An early ovolo-moulded stair window with a mullion and two transoms is situated to the right. Above, on the first floor to the left, is a four-light double-chamfered mullion window with a king mullion and Gothic glazing.

The right return has a chamfered plinth and two rusticated door surrounds with keyblocks dated 1683; the right door has been widened. A raised dripmould extends over the door surrounds. Double-chamfered mullion windows with two lights are to the left. A section of timber-framed walling to the right incorporates old wallposts. A crow-stepped gable is at the far right.

Inside, beyond the right door on the right return, is a chamfered, quoined doorway with a flat-pointed lintel inscribed "WILLIAM PARKER / MADE THIS WORKE / 1584." In an upper right room of the garden front, there is oak panelling and a plaster ceiling with floral motifs in high relief. Stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops are also present.