Low Hall

Low Hall is a manor house and farmhouse, now operating as a restaurant and farmhouse, located on Low Hall Road in Horsforth. The building dates from various periods between the mid-16th and later 17th centuries, with most of the structure dating from the later 17th century. It was built for the Stanhope family. The manor house underwent internal remodelling in 1972.

The building is constructed from coursed squared sandstone with quoins and stone slate roofs. It has an irregular U-shaped plan comprising three principal elements: the house at the east end, a large wing to the rear of the north end of this house, and a farmhouse linked on the same axis with a wing and store at its west end.

The main house consists of two storeys arranged in six bays and faces east. It features a canted two-storey porch at the fifth bay containing a doorway with moulded surround and an overlight of four lights with chamfered mullions. Above this is a mullion-and-transom four-light window. Narrow transomed windows are set on both floors of the porch's side walls. The second bay contains a blocked ogee-headed window at ground floor level and a small double-chamfered square window just above it (now functioning as a ventilator). The remaining fenestration is transomed throughout: five lights on each floor of the outer bays, and cross-windows elsewhere. The ground floor windows of the third, fourth and sixth bays have lowered sills. The roof features gable copings with kneelers and finials (though chimneys are now absent). At the left end is a single-storey addition in matching style with a cross-window at first floor of the gable above. The right-hand gable wall has a transomed five-light window on each floor. A recent two-storey kitchen block has been added to the rear of the house.

The rear wing is rectangular with a continuous rear (north) outshut and may have been the first rebuilding of the house (known as "New Hall") or served as lodgings. Its three-storey, four-bay south-facing front displays drip-moulds on two levels. At first floor are recessed chamfered-mullion windows of four, two, four and two lights; similar windows appear at ground floor (though the right-hand end is covered by a modern addition). The second floor has smaller windows of three, two and two lights set under the eaves. Between the first and second windows of both upper levels are blocked smaller openings, which may have been fire-windows. A rebuilt chimney stands on the ridge between the first and second bays, and there is a gable coping with kneelers.

The farmhouse continues to the left with one bay on the same axis. It has two low storeys and features a chamfered Tudor-arched doorway at the junction opening into a through-passage with a similar doorway at the rear (suggesting that the rear wing replaced part of the farmhouse). A recessed two-light mullioned window is set to the left with an enlarged modern window above. A projecting wing of two bays extends to the left with 18th-century openings: two doorways (one blocked), a three-light window to the left, a four-light window above, and an inserted window above the door. Attached and projecting at the lower end of this wing is a store, probably formerly a dwelling, built on a lower level and at right-angles. Its gable wall has at ground floor a large Tudor-arched doorway with stop-chamfered jambs and head, a two-light window to the right (now boarded over), and at first floor an altered recessed chamfered mullion window formerly of at least three lights (one mullion remaining). Its left return wall has a similar two-light window at first floor without the mullion. The right return wall has a chamfered doorway at first floor (at ground level here).

The interior of the house and wing has been altered. The interior of the farmhouse was not inspected at the time of listing.

The building forms a group with a barn, also listed under Low Hall Lane.