Pratt Hall And Attached Outbuildings

This is a house, dating from the early 17th century, which was substantially remodelled around 1700 and subsequently altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of coursed rubble Coal Measures sandstone with gritstone dressings to the 17th-century section, sandstone dressings to the 18th-century section, quoins, coped gables with moulded kneelers, and rendered gable stacks. The roof is covered with concrete tiles and stone slates.

The house is in an L-shape, with an attached outbuilding to the north-west end of the south-west elevation. The main front has two storeys and three bays. A massive lintel and quoined surround feature on the doorway at the north-west end; there’s also a 20th-century two-light casement window nearby. To the south-east are an 18th-century single-light window, a blocked doorway, and a 19th-century two-light casement window under a simple head. A central two-light chamfered mullioned window is flanked by two 18th-century three-light windows, each with a slightly projecting head featuring a concave quadrant moulding and integral drip mould. All first-floor windows have plain timber casements. The south-east elevation has both an 18th-century mullioned window and a relocated 17th-century two-light window (the mullion has been removed). There are two blocked oeil-de-boeuf windows in the gable apex.

A rear range, set slightly back from the front gable, has a rebuilt gable wall. On the ground floor of this range is a recessed five-light chamfered mullioned window from the 17th century, a four-light window of similar date sits above it, and an inserted 18th-century single-light window is located on the north-east of the first-floor window. The north-west elevation of the rear range contains a blocked doorway from the 18th century.

Inside, the remaining bay of the 17th-century house has a beamed ceiling with pyramidal stops to the spine beams and chamfered, stopped joists. The northeast end of one spine beam is covered with later cladding, suggesting a removed hearth. A timber-studded wall exists on the rear side wall of a room, with a socket for a possible removed bressumer. A stud partition on the first floor separates a narrow corridor from the main chamber. Throughout the house are 18th-century panelled doors. A 18th-century hearth is present on the north-west gable’s ground-floor wall, with a massive lintel carried on jowelled jambs. The attached outbuilding is on two levels—one storey on the southwest, with an offshut at a lower level to the northeast side, and an overloft at the northwest end. It is roofed with stone slates covered in pitch and hessian.