Lea Hall

Lea Hall is a small country house dated 1584, built for Richard and Eleanor Lee. It is constructed of red brick in English bond with red and grey sandstone ashlar dressings, and is roofed with plain tiles. The building is arranged in a U-plan, comprising two storeys and an attic over a basement.

The north-east garden front features a chamfered stone plinth, flush stone quoins, and parapeted gables with stone copings and kneelers. The left-hand gable has brick pilasters at its apex with moulded stone caps. External brick lateral stacks with pitched-roofed links to the attics and three star-shaped shafts are visible, and there is an integral brick lateral stack at the rear to the left of the right-hand wing with a single star-shaped shaft. A probably 18th-century integral brick stack stands off-centre to the right at the front. A central 18th-century gabled eaves dormer with a three-light wooden casement is positioned centrally.

The centre of the north-east front displays three first-floor 18th-century segmental-headed wooden cross windows and a ground-floor segmental-headed wooden mullioned and transomed casement. A blocked 16th-century double-chamfered three-light mullioned stone mezzanine window (with the right-hand mullion missing) is located to the left, possibly to light a former staircase. Evidence of a blocked ground-floor window or doorway is visible to the left. Some small 20th-century casements have been inserted.

The cross wings contain 18th-century segmental-headed three-light wooden mullioned and mullioned and transomed casements, set within blocked openings of former larger mullioned and transomed stone windows. The ground-floor window of the right-hand cross wing has been replaced with a 20th-century casement. A large probably 19th-century dressed red sandstone buttress, with chamfered offsets and a chamfered-arched opening beneath, stands to the right of the windows in the left-hand cross wing. Curious full-height blocked panels exist in the inner returns of the cross wings, with the top part of the left-hand panel recessed and containing a blocked doorway. A blocked basement window with chamfered reveals is present in the inner return of the left-hand wing. A lean-to addition has been constructed against the inner return of the right-hand wing.

The left-hand return front displays two first-floor segmental-headed wooden cross windows and a ground-floor segmental-headed wooden cross window to the left, with a blocked 16th-century double-chamfered four-light mullioned and transomed stone window to its right. The right-hand return front contains a first-floor segmental-headed three-light wooden mullioned and transomed casement to the right and ground-floor blocked 16th-century paired double-chamfered stone cross windows. The rear elevation has various 18th-century segmental-headed wooden mullioned and transomed casements and blocked 16th-century double-chamfered mullioned and transomed stone windows. A six-panelled door with a moulded architrave and blocked overlight stands off-centre to the left, with a 20th-century hipped-roofed porch adjoining it. A blocked 16th-century doorway with a dressed stone surround and deep stone lintel is also visible.

The house was partly refenestrated in the late 18th century. The interior was altered in the late 18th or early 19th century, possibly including the horizontal division of a former central open hall.

The central ground-floor front room features 18th-century raised and fielded dado panelling, a corner fireplace with a mid-19th-century reeded architrave, and a 17th-century overmantel with two round arches divided by a central carved figure, a fluted frieze, and a cornice. A framed wall dividing the room from the rear corridor has chamfered ceiling beams. The staircase has stick balusters. Panelling with a fluted frieze and a plank and muntin cellar door beneath the stairs are present.

The left-hand ground-floor room contains 16th-century oak panelling with a fluted frieze and modillion cornice. A 16th-century grey sandstone fireplace has a shallow ovolo-moulded Tudor arch with flanking fluted pilasters, and a three-bay oak overmantel with fluted Ionic pilasters on a strapwork base, a panelled frieze and cornice, and three recessed moulded panels. The centre panel contains a carved head; the left-hand panel is inscribed "L"; and the right-hand panel is inscribed "R E 1584". The right-hand ground-floor front room retains a large open former kitchen fireplace, and the right-hand ground-floor rear room has a large open corner fireplace.

The first-floor staircase hall is flanked by square-panelled timber-framed internal dividing walls, each side with a series of shaped brackets supporting the first-floor wall plate. A blocked first-floor doorway in the right-hand wall has an ovolo-moulded frame with ogee stops. The left-hand first-floor room has a pair of deep-chamfered ceiling beams with ogee stops, oak panelling with a moulded cornice, and a stone fireplace with a shallow ovolo-moulded Tudor arch and moulded cornice. A small bedroom or dressing room to the rear is divided from the front room by a square-panelled timber-frame wall bearing carpenter's marks.

The possibility that the central range formerly consisted of a full-height open hall would explain certain features, particularly the blocked mezzanine or half-height window to the front and the series of brackets supporting the wall plate at each end. Alternatively, and more probably, the central range was floored with undivided ground-and first-floor rooms and a staircase to the front, which would explain the fenestration patterns.