The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary is a detached house dating back to the 15th century, with an early 16th-century cross wing. It has square-panelled timber framing on a rubble stone plinth, with painted brick nogging and a Bridgwater tiled roof, featuring an axial stone stack to the cross range and an external brick stack to the hall range. Originally a three-bay cruck-built hall range, a three-bay cross wing was added at right angles. The north-west front has two storeys and three windows. A ledged door is located in a porch at the right end of the hall range, with a 2-light and a 3-light leaded casement to the left. The gable end of the wing to the right also has a 2-light and a 3-light leaded casement. The first floor has two 2-light casements, one single-light casement, and a 2-light wood mullioned casement in the attic gable of the wing. A single-storey 19th-century addition is attached to the left of the hall range, with leaded casements and a single-roman tiled roof. The right return, on the cross wing, has 2-light and single-light diamond-leaded casements, plus a pair of trefoil-headed wooden lancets. The east gable end of the cross wing features a dressed stone plinth, a small oriel window on the ground floor, and a jettied timber-framed first floor with one casement. The rear of the hall range has 3-light and 2-light leaded casements and an external brick stack. The rear of the jettied wing has a 6-panelled door to the left and a 2-light first-floor casement.

Inside, the hall range has full crucks resting on stone pads. The north gable end has an open fireplace with a chamfered lintel, and a deep chamfered beam with the incised date 1687 to an inserted first floor. Stairs are against the rear wall with plank and muntin panelling, and there’s an inserted lateral stack with a Tudor-arched stone fireplace. A truss dividing the north bay from the middle has a chamfered arch-braced collar to the cruck, formerly open. The cross wing has a parlour with a Tudor-arched stone fireplace, moulded plank and muntin panelling against a timber-framed partition, moulded ceiling beams, and exposed joists. A jettied first-floor room displays an exposed deep arch-braced collar truss roof with curved windbracing; the west room has a chamfered tie-beam to a plainer roof truss, exposed rafters, open fireplaces, and a 17th-century cupboard beside the west fireplace. This is a fine, unaltered example of a cruck-built 15th-century hall house with a well-preserved early 16th-century wing, indicative of Steeple Ashton's late medieval prosperity.