Crosemere Hall And Attached Garden Wall

Crosemere Hall and Attached Garden Wall

Farmhouse, probably dating from the late 17th century, with partial remodelling around 1700 and extensions in the mid to late 18th century, together with later additions and alterations. The building is constructed in red brick with a hipped plain tile roof and follows a basic L-plan with a short range to the north, probably developing from an earlier twin-gabled 17th-century house that was given a hipped roof around 1700. The structure comprises 2 storeys and attics with a floor band to the first floor and a chamfered and stepped plinth.

The garden front displays 5 windows of varying periods. The first floor has wooden cross windows with leaded lights and gauged heads, while the centre bay on the ground floor matches this style. The 2 right bays on the ground floor have glazing bar sashes with gauged heads, and the first bay from the left has a 20th-century French window with a rectangular barred overlight. A red brick ridge stack stands to the right of centre, with a rebuilt external lateral stack to the left.

The right return features a blind window on each floor to the left of a wall, with a straight joint above, and a narrow window immediately to the left of the wall on the first floor. This section has 3 segmental-headed windows to the first floor (the left dating to the 19th century, the centre blind, and the right dating to the 20th century) and 3 segmental-headed windows to the ground floor (the left and right being 20th-century casements and the centre being blind). A 20th-century segmental-headed boarded door stands to the left, immediately to the right of the wall.

The east side is dominated by a massive extruded external stack with 4 attached and rebated shafts and 2 pointed openings to the top. An infilled arch of a former bread oven is visible on the right face. A segmental-headed 20th-century casement appears on each floor to the left, with a hip-roofed dormer in the roof slope. The side facing the farmyard has mainly segmental-headed 19th-century casements and a probably 17th-century carved doorway positioned beneath a red brick porch with regularly coursed and dressed red sandstone block construction and ramped coping. A short stretch of red brick wall with sandstone coping is attached to the porch and contains a reused datestone superscribed "FLL/1700".

Attached to the house at the straight joint of the right return is a garden wall, probably dating to around 1700. Constructed in red brick with sandstone coping and buttressed to the outside, it encloses an area of approximately 50 by 30 metres to the west of the house, with a 20th-century farmbuilding (not of special interest) abutting its north side. A small single-storey hip-roofed outbuilding with a lean-to to the right in the angle with the garden front is probably of late 18th-century date.

Interior

A small room behind the French window contains small 17th-century rectangular oak panelling, whilst the room to the right has large rectangular oak panelling. Plain marble fireplaces of probably 19th-century date stand either side of the ridge stack. The east wall features a large inglenook fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel to the external stack.

A late 17th-century dog-leg staircase with carved splat vase-shaped balusters and moulded handrail rises from the ground floor to the attic. The initials "FLL" are carved on the handrail from ground floor to first floor. A steep, narrow straight-flight back staircase also serves the building. Timber frame is exposed throughout the cross walls, consisting of square and rectangular panels, some with wattle and daub infill exposed. Doors throughout are of plank and panelled construction with H-and L-hinges, whilst wide boarded oak floorboards cover the first floor and attic. The attic displays 17th-century collar and tie beam trusses to the rear part of the house and 18th-century collar and tie beam trusses over the remodelled 18th-century garden front.