Haregate Hall

Haregate Hall is a house, now subdivided, with origins in the early 17th century, extended around 1722 and altered during the 19th century.

The building is constructed from coursed and squared rubble and brick, with plain-tiled and Welsh slate roofs. The plan consists of several distinct components. The oldest south-west wing is of one and a half storeys and follows a 'houseplace' plan, with a central living hall flanked by parlour and service wings. The later south-east wing has two storeys and an attic. To the north is an early 19th-century wing which incorporates a formerly free-standing 17th-century kitchen block.

The earliest range, one and a half storeys high, is composed of a central hall with gables on each side forming a three-unit plan with three windows. The doorway sits to the left of the right-hand gable and has a chamfered stone architrave, formerly with a timber canopy hood. The ledged door is early 18th-century and bears an iron latch dated '1722' in cut work. A single five-light mullioned and transomed window lights the central ground floor section, with three-light mullioned windows set beneath the gables. Upper windows have been renewed in wood. At right angles stands an early 18th-century range now in separate occupation, built in Flemish bond brickwork with blue headers and comprising two storeys with a shallow-pitched roof and deep eaves of 19th-century appearance. This elevation has three tall windows with renewed wood mullions and transoms. The former entrance elevation on the opposite side features a doorway to the left with a single window above it and a staircase window at intermediate height alongside, both renewed. The southern gable displays a painted sundial. To the rear of the earlier building is a further early 19th-century wing incorporating a 17th-century range constructed from a mixture of red brick and stone walling with kneelers and coping to the gable ends.

Internally, the ground floor features chamfered beams with end stops throughout. The entrance hall has panelling below the dado and raised and fielded panels to the shutters, together with a series of 19th-century service bells. The kitchen contains a large 19th-century hearth extending almost to ceiling height and fitted cupboards. The original hearth and wall dividing the houseplace from the service room has been demolished, though its position may be conjectured from a scarf joint in the main ceiling beam of the present kitchen. The larder retains stone shelving. The south-west parlour combines raised and fielded panelling with chair rail and recessed panels, topped by a 19th-century chimneypiece. An alcove cupboard beside the hearth has shaped shelves. Another room in this section features a window seat flanked by fluted pilaster strips. The staircase has an open well and splat balusters, appearing to be 19th or 20th-century copies of the originals, whose mouldings survive as part of the newel posts. The first floor has a combination of plank doors and panelled doors. The bathroom features painted panelling including a fluted frieze of apparently 17th-century date. The roof combines older timbers including chamfered purlins with 20th-century common rafters of wide spacing. The early 18th-century wing contains rooms with raised and fielded panelling to ground and first floors, and a panelled staircase hall with a dogleg staircase featuring a ramped handrail, turned balusters and wreathed curtail extending two full storeys. The rear wing has a sizeable bressumer and chamfered ceiling beam to the ground floor room, which may indicate former use as a kitchen with a large hearth.

The west wing appears to have been built at the end of the 16th or start of the 17th century, probably by John Wardle. An eastern wing was added by Joshua Toft, a button merchant from Leek, around 1722, when the plan of the earlier wing appears to have been altered, including the panelling of the ground floor south-western room. A wing was added to the rear in the early 19th century incorporating an earlier 17th-century wing, possibly formerly a kitchen. The house remained in the Toft family until its sale in 1948 to Leek Urban District Council. The estate subsequently became the site of council housing development.