Baildon Hall

Baildon Hall is a manor house, now used as a social club. The building represents an exceptional survival of medieval and early modern domestic architecture, combining a 14th-century screens-passage within a late 15th-century timber-framed cross-wing that was encased in dressed stone in the late 16th century, with a mid-17th-century stone hall range added subsequently. Early to mid-19th-century alterations have been made. The structure is timber-framed with a cross-wing encased in large dressed stone, a dressed stone 17th-century range, and a stone slate roof. It stands 2½ storeys with a cellar beneath, arranged on a hall-and-cross-wing plan with double-depth under a 2-span roof.

The west front presents an L-shaped elevation with a 3-gabled hall range and a projecting wing to the right. The front displays three rooms across its width. The first cell, serving as a parlour, has two 19th-century sashed windows with plain stone surrounds. The hall occupies the main central position beneath two gables, featuring a 10 by 10 light mullioned-and-transomed window with roll and concave moulding, a king mullion, and round heads to the upper lights; three lights have been blocked by an inserted door. A hoodmould projects above the window. The first floor contains six 19th-century sashed windows. Each gable displays a cross-window to the attic, moulded coping, a base for a finial, and a parapet between the gables. A doorway to the right at the junction with the wing has a shallow-arched lintel with spandrels, composite jambs, and a moulded surround. The south wing projects forward with a 4-light deeply-chamfered mullioned window featuring cavetto mullions. Above this sits a 3-light chamfered mullioned window. The wing terminates in a coped gable with a base for a finial at its apex. The left return of the wing projects beyond the eaves and has a laid-on rainwater head, indicating where the earlier timber frame was enclosed.

The rear elevation presents a U-shaped composition with a gabled cross-wing to the left, a gabled hall at the centre with a large external stack to the right, and a gabled stair tower flush with the right wing. A plinth runs around the base. The left wing displays a 4-light deeply-chamfered mullioned window with moulded cavetto mullions set beneath the eaves, featuring four arched lights and sunken spandrels, with a 3-light chamfered window above. A coped gable with kneelers and a base for a finial, set back from the wing edge, crowns this elevation. The central hall features a 4 by 4-light double-chamfered mullioned-and-transomed window with a cross-window above. A large stack projects from the wall, decorated with a moulded cornice and rainwater head. The stair tower has a blocked doorway to its left of the cross-window, with another cross-window above. The right wing contains a 6-light double-chamfered mullioned window set in the basement to light the cellar. Above this runs a 6 by 6-light mullioned-and-transomed window; a former 5 by 5-light window has been altered to two sashed lights, with a cross-window to the attic beyond. Paired coped gables with kneelers and bases for finials, set within the left-hand return of the stair tower, frame an original doorway with a Tudor-arched lintel, sunken spandrels, and a cyma-moulded surround with broach-and-roll stop. A 2-light window sits above, with a corbelled stone gutter beneath. The left-hand return displays two gables, each with tall external stacks; the rear stack is carried on corbels to support a first-floor fireplace. Between these gables, cross-windows serve each floor, with a rainwater chute set in the valley between the two coped gables. The right-hand return has two lateral stacks that have been reduced in height.

The interior retains exceptional features of historical and architectural significance. The north wing contains a parlour with a rear service room and steps descending to a contemporary cellar. The parlour walls are lined with fine oak panelling, reputedly brought from Hawksworth Hall by Jane Hawksworth at the time of her marriage to Francis Baildon in 1649. The ceiling is richly decorated with plaster, bearing the initials "F B" and ornamented with vine-leaves, pomegranates, and flowers. The frieze is similarly adorned. The ceiling itself displays fruit and foliage motifs with pendants, and ribs arranged in a geometric pattern of squares and circles. The chamber above retains late 17th-century oak panelling with long rectangular panels. The hall contains two large spine beams and a lateral fireplace with moulded jambs and a replaced pointed lintel of wood. The chamber above has a Victorian plaster cornice. Opening from the hall at its junction with the north wing is a fine original closed string, framed newel staircase with heavy square newels decorated with strap-work and flame-finials, a moulded handrail, and finely turned balusters. At the junction of the hall and south wing lies a screens passage with pointed-arched timber doorways, the centre one wider and formerly opening into a passage that divided the ground floor of the wing into two rooms, each with fireplaces contemporary with the stone encasing. Two posts either side of the screen rise to support king-post trusses. The first floor spans three bays. The front bay contains a closed truss with 'A' struts and close-studded walling with fragments of plaster decoration dated 1618. The rear room of two bays features a fine open truss with a tall king-post and tie-beam with knee braces. The wall plate and close-studded wall at the junction with the hall chamber carry transverse cross-beams morticed into posts, which support exceptionally heavy 10 by 8 inch laid-on joists. The eastern gable on the rear has a similar closed truss on the inside of its wall. The roof timbers remain virtually intact with heavy rafters. The wing appears to be a floored solar wing, heated by an external stack on its side wall. The single-bay chamber with plaster decoration dated 1618 contained a fragment, now perished, decorated with the Christian symbol of a fish, suggesting it may originally have served as a chapel. The roof timbers display stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, a detail of medieval carpentry practice.

Baildon Hall served as the seat of the Baildon family and represents a house of considerable importance, preserving the rare survival of a late medieval timber-framed cross-wing alongside a finely panelled and plastered 17th-century parlour and an original staircase of quality.