The Old Hall

The Old Hall is a grammar school and master's house, dating back to around 1600, with significant alterations in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The school was founded in 1600 by Sir John Hart, Lord Mayor of London. It is constructed of ashlar sandstone, with stone slate and pantile roofs. The building has an L-shaped plan; the school range runs parallel to the road, and the early 18th-century master's house projects forward to the right.

The main range has four bays and a small staircase turret at the rear left end. The ground floor features four mullion and transom windows with some renewed stonework; a boarded door sits to the left, set within a Tudor-arched moulded ashlar surround with a hood mould, and a coat of arms above. A string course runs around the first floor, which contains four 19th-century pent-roofed dormer windows, each with three small 8-pane sashes. The roof is of stone slate with ashlar coping, the left section having a ball finial at the ridge, and a brick stack at the right end.

The south-facing (road) elevation of the right wing has sash windows with glazing bars and hood moulds on both floors. The right wing's left return has a 20th-century 6-panel door in a chamfered surround with a hood mould, with an inserted double-chamfered window to its left and a sash window with glazing bars and a hood mould to its right. Two 20th-century dormer windows have unequally-hung 9-pane sash windows. The roof here is pantiled, with stone slates at the eaves, and a brick stack behind the door.

The rear of the main blocks shows a relocated window, originally blocked by a late 19th-century wing that has since been removed. One original dormer window remains; the stair turret has some original windows.

Inside the main range are two school rooms, the left one featuring late 19th-century panelling that replicates the original. This panelling includes a stone inscription detailing the school's endowment in 1600, which provided for four scholarships and two fellowships for scholars at Sidney College, Cambridge. The master’s house, including a kitchen and dining room for the boys’ meals, was added around 1725. The chimney stack above the door once served a large kitchen fireplace and bread oven, which have since been demolished. Until 1806, masters of the grammar school also served as ministers at Husthwaite Church. From 1806, they were also perpetual curates of Coxwold Church. The school closed in 1894. The panelling formerly in the left schoolroom, which included boys’ names carved upon it (including that of architect William Wakefield), was reassembled at the Porters' Hall at Newburgh Priory.