Sharlston Hall

Sharlston Hall

Manor house, now divided into 2 dwellings, located on The Green. The building bears a date of 1574 on its porch, but is thought to comprise construction work from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. It has a timber frame, cased in stone and now rendered, with a roof of stone slates.

The plan is L-shaped, formed by alterations and successive additions made to an early 15th-century hall of linear hearth-passage plan. This creates a long and irregular range facing south, with a projecting west wing. The building is now two storeys throughout, with an attic added to one wing.

The south facade of the main range displays 5 irregularly-disposed and unequal gables. A small 2-storey gabled porch is positioned offset right of centre. The upper floor and jettied gable of the porch have exposed decorative framing of small square panels with quadrant braces. The rail and tie-beam carry a Latin inscription and the date 1574. To the left of the porch, the hall features a large 5-light mullion-and-transom window, which is matched by an opposed window in the rear wall. An inserted gabled dormer with a 3-light mullioned window breaks the eaves line to the right of this opening.

To the right of the porch are the gables of inner and outer east wings, both with slightly set-back upper floors. The inner wing, slightly overlapped by the porch, has a 3-light casement at ground floor, two 2-light casements at first floor, and a square casement to the attic. The outer wing has a catslide roof on its further side, with 2 altered windows at ground floor, a 2-light and a 3-light mullioned window at ground floor and one above. On the further side of an attached garden wall are mullioned windows of 2 and 3 lights, and a tall gabled dormer rising from the return wall. The hall has a ridge chimney positioned slightly left of the porch.

To the left of the hall is the gable of a mid-15th-century solar wing, mostly covered by a low projecting wing added to the front. This front wing itself has a further addition in the re-entrant angle, with twin-gabled jettied upper floor, and a lean-to addition covers the remainder of the re-entrant wall. The gable of this wing has altered or inserted windows. The return wall has a large external chimney stack close to the front with offsets, an added porch to the rear of this, then a restored 4-light mullioned window and 2 casements above. The return of the solar wing, which is continuous, has a similar external chimney stack, a 3-light mullioned window to the front of this, and a casement above.

The rear of the hall features 2 gabled dormers over the hall window (there were 2 temporary timber buttresses present at the time of survey in 1986), a back door opposed to the porch, and above this a 2-light casement breaking the eaves with a segmental pediment. The rear of the inner east wing has a built-out ground floor with 2 French windows, casements at first floor, and a square casement to the attic. The rear of the outer east wing displays 2 very large external chimney stacks, the inner of which carries 3 diagonal flues.

At the time of survey in 1986, details of interior construction were concealed or inaccessible. Further information is available in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments report on Rural Houses of West Yorkshire 1400-1830, page 212, and in a manuscript report held by the West Yorkshire Archaeological Unit, Wakefield.