The Old Hall

SJ 74 SE 5/60

MADELEY C.P. POOLSIDE The Old Hall

2/12/52

GV II*

House. Probably late C16 with considerable later additions and alterations, mostly of late C19 and C20. Timber framed on dressed sandstone plinth, plastered and brick infill; clay tile roofs with central clustered and rebated stack, re-built in engineering brick.

Originally cruciform in shape with projecting gabled wings, each of two framed bays. Two storeys and attic; jetties to gables on both upper floors supported on bulbous corbel brackets (those to front on second floor with painted carved decoration); inscribed bressumer (see below) also on front to first floor; close-studding on ground and first floors with single cross-rails; three- and four-light leaded casements (the earliest probably being early C19, and the remainder in imitation) to each floor in gables; ledged and nail-studded door (probably C17) in left-hand side of front wing with early C20 lean-to porch (also timber framed) in angle between front and right-hand wings. To the rear of the right-hand wing is a late C19 plum brick range with reconstructed conservatory with slender cast-iron columns behind; also behind the rear gable is a two-storeyed late C20 brick addition and in angle between rear and left-hand wing a reconstructed lean-to extension.

Interior: timber frame partly exposed; moulded and bevelled beams throughout with ox-tongue, straight cut and run-out chamfer stops; stone fireplaces on ground floor, C19 panelling with quatrefoils in the front room; several C17 doors and on the first floor a reputed priest's hole; sandstone-walled cellar beneath right-hand wing. Massive double-purlin roof with collar beams and S windbraces. The inscription "16 WALLK K NAVE . WHAT LOOK EST AT 47 I B" on first floor bressumer of front gable probably does not refer to the building of the house, but may be some kind of warning. The house is said to have had recusant connections in the late C16/C17, which suggest that its original cruciform plan may perhaps have had some allegorical significance (cf, for example, Sir William Tresham's Lyveden New Build and Rushton Triangular Lodge [Northants]).

Listing NGR: SJ7734444628