Prested Hall

Prested Hall is a house, dating from the 14th to 17th centuries, with alterations from the 19th century and extensions in the 20th. It is now an institution. The building is timber framed and has plaster walls with a roof of handmade red plain tiles. It has a complex plan, originally comprising a hall aligned approximately east-west, possibly aisled, with an older section, a 16th-century and a 17th-century extension to the south. Large 20th-century extensions have been added to the north, east and south, incorporating the historic structure within a larger building that was used from 1934 as a nursing home, and later as a residential institution.

The two-story building has attics. The present main entrance elevation faces north and features five 20th-century casement windows with rectangular leading on the ground floor, six on the first floor and two in the attic. There are also 20th-century double half-glazed doors with sidelights. A carved inscription above the door bears the date 1934. The west elevation of the historic structure features two gabled wings with a narrow gabled wing between them and scattered windows from the 19th and 20th centuries. A 6-panel door, the top four panels glazed, is set within a 20th-century gabled porch. The date 1527 is painted on plaster.

Inside, features include jowled posts, heavy studding with curved braces trenched to the inside, a steeply cambered tiebeam over the hall with two solid angle-braces, chamfered axial and transverse beams, plain joists of a horizontal section, and a large wood-burning hearth facing north. The building contains early 17th-century oak panelling, alongside more recent reproduction work. The wall framing is largely concealed by 20th-century interior finishes. The site is moated.