Oakwell Hall Including Boundary Wall

Oakwell Hall is an extremely fine hall house, now a museum, likely built around 1583 for John Batt. It incorporates a timber-framed house from the mid-16th century, with substantial refurbishment in the 17th century. The hall is constructed of ashlar with a stone slate roof and chamfered gable copings. The building follows an H-plan, featuring a central hall with a two-storey gabled porch to the right and a gabled wing to the left elevation. Windows are double-chamfered and ovolo-moulded, largely with throated hood moulds, some of which function as string courses. Five projecting chimney breasts with ashlar stacks are situated on the sides and rear, with one on the right side being particularly broad. A large central hall window of 30 lights, incorporating a king mullion and two transoms, is believed to be of 17th-century origin. An arched entrance to an open porch on the right bears a recut inscription dated 1583. A three-light window is positioned on the first floor. The wings to the left and right feature 12-light mullioned and transomed windows on the ground floor, with 12 and 10-light windows of a similar style on the first floor to the left and right, respectively. The left wing also includes an inward-facing 12-light window with a transom to the ground floor and a 6-light window to the first floor. Rear fenestration incorporates 12, 14 and 16-light mullioned and transomed windows. The lights are leaded, with many retaining early glazing; the hall window exhibits diamond pattern glazing.

Internally, the arrangement includes a through screened passage with an open hall to the left. Beyond the hall is the great parlour or drawing room to the front, followed by a buttery, pantry, dairy, and servants' hall to the rear. To the right is a smaller parlour or dining room with a kitchen to the rear. On the first floor, the principal bedroom is located above the great parlour.

The great hall is galleried on two sides, featuring vertically symmetrical turned balusters, and contains 17th-century plasterwork on the underside. Oak panelling screens off the hall, incorporating two round arched openings with three pairs of Tuscan columns, and is thought to be of 17th-century origin. The gallery is accessed via an open-well staircase with flat balusters and openwork dog-gates. The fireplace is considered to be of 17th-century date. Window jambs in the great parlour display plaster grotesques, possibly from the early 17th century, in the form of lions' heads, caryatids, and female figures representing the Celtic goddess of fecundity. The arched fireplace in this room may be original. The passage ceiling has 17th-century plasterwork in patterns of three, five, six, and eight-sided figures, while the plasterwork to the porch ceiling is thought to be from the 16th century.

The stone boundary wall is distinguished by a roll-top coping and large ball finials to the openings in front of the entrance, returning to the building on the right. The building served as "Fieldhead" in Charlotte Brontë's novel "Shirley."