Ridley Hall

Ridley Hall is a house dating from around 1400, with significant alterations in the 18th and 20th centuries. It is primarily timber framed and plastered, with some painted brick, and has a roof of handmade red clay tiles. The original design featured a two-bay hall aligned east to west, with an axial stack in the west bay. Attached to the east is a two-bay service crosswing with an external stack to the north. The service crosswing was extended southwards by one bay in the late 16th century, using brick for the end wall and featuring a further external stack. A large 20th-century extension has been added to the west of the hall.

The east elevation has a three-window range of 20th-century casements and a 20th-century door. The north stack is of 16th-century origin, with an upper portion rebuilt in the 18th century. The south stack is of the 17th/18th centuries. The roof is fully hipped.

Inside the hall, at the east end, are blocked twin service doorways with chamfered jambs and four-centred heads within chamfered surrounds. These doorways showcase bracing trenched into close studding, with jewel-headed nails at the crossings. In the northeast corner is a blocked doorway that formerly led to a stairwell to the chamber above the service rooms. At the west end, a 20th-century grate features a retained late 16th-century mantel beam with lamb's tongue stops. An inserted floor includes a chamfered axial beam with plain joists, some of which have been renewed. The rafters are heavily smoke-blackened and trenched for collars on the east side (towards the 'high end'), but the original collars, collar-purlin and crownpost are missing. In the service crosswing, a central partition has been removed, and a 20th-century grate is situated within the 16th-century stack. The roof structure here has been altered considerably by conversion to a hip in the 18th century, and has wide braces to a cambered tiebeam.

The 16th-century south extension displays close studding, plain doorheads, a blocked large window (likely originally of oriel form), and a clasped purlin roof that was altered to a hip in the 18th century. Historically, the house was a manor house of high status, notable for its unusually large and high hall, a cross-entry at the east end, and a front door originally located south of the entry, now blocked. The parlor and solar end has been demolished and the west end of the hall closed with a brick wall, with the 20th-century extension beyond. In the 16th century, the service crosswing was extended to the north. In the 18th century, the crosswing became the reception front, a central entrance/stair hall was created, with a room to each side, and the roof was hipped to create an illusion of symmetry, transforming the hall into a rear service wing. In the 19th century it was used as a large tenement, and it was altered to its present form around 1960.