Lee Old Hall

A farmhouse, now a house, likely dating from around 1550, with extensions of 1594 and 1651. The 1594 additions were for Mr. Charleton, an agent to the Earl of Bridgewater, and the 1651 extension was for Stephen Hatchett. Later 19th-century additions and alterations have also been made.

The house is timber framed with rendered and painted brick infill, covered by slate roofs. The original core is at the rear, apparently in two framed bays, and a two-bay cross-wing. A projecting porch was added to the front in 1594, forming a basic “L” shape. A two-story porch, dated 1651, is attached to the left gable end of the cross-wing. The building stands two stories high with attics. The original mid-16th-century range features square panels from the cill to the wallplate, with a painted black and white imitation timber frame. Jowled wall posts and a renewed tie beam are visible at the left gable end. The 1594 porch is jettied to the first floor and attic, with moulded bressumers, and is superscribed “ANNO DOMINI 1594”. It contains a 20th-century plank door under a lean-to hood, flanked by fixed-light windows in seemingly earlier surrounds. A two-light leaded casement window on the first floor exhibits a herringbone pattern to the front and sides. Herringbone decoration with four middle rails is found on the remainder of the cross-wing, including the gable ends and the gable above the eaves to the right. Original late 16th-century windows include two mullioned and transomed windows with leaded latticed lights to the right of the porch on the ground floor, and two mullioned windows (also with leaded lights, latticed to the right) directly below the eaves. The gable above the eaves contains similar two-light windows, and mullioned windows with leaded latticed lights on each floor to the left gable end.

The former two-story porch, attached to the left gable end, is now open to the ground floor and supported to the front by a brick wall with close-set vertical posts and a middle rail. A four-light leaded window has a 17th-century moulded cill. 19th-century red brick integral lateral stacks are located on the back wall of the cross-wing (left side) and at the bottom of the roof slope between the mid-16th-century part and the cross-wing (right side). A flat-roofed 19th-century addition runs along the full length of the right side of the mid-16th-century range, incorporating a formerly gabled (now flat-roofed) timber-framed projection abutting the right gable end of the 1594 range. A two-story gabled brick range, painted black and white in imitation of timber framing, is set at right angles to the rear of the mid-16th-century range.

The interior was not inspected during a resurvey in March 1987, but is known to contain panelling and an overmantel dated 1657, similar to that at Shade Oak Farmhouse. A cellar lies beneath the right room of the 1594 range.