Hathersage Hall

Hathersage Hall is a small country house with a complex history, dating back to 1496. The core of the building is largely late 16th century, with significant additions and alterations in the mid-18th century and a major remodelling around 1830 incorporating earlier fragments. It is constructed of ashlar and coursed squared gritstone, with quoins, a moulded eaves cornice, and coped gables featuring moulded kneelers. The roof is covered in stone slates.

The house has an irregular plan, beginning with the present stair tower which adjoins a larger 16th-century tower. A mid-18th-century range was added to the southwest, and the facade we see today, likely a remodelling of an earlier range, was built around 1830. The tower has shouldered gables and is three stories high with a basement. The northeast elevation originally featured pairs of chamfered mullioned and transomed windows beneath a continuous stepped stringcourse. Most of these windows now have 18th-century glazing bar sashes; basement level windows retain chamfered mullions. A plaque in the gable apex, set beneath a stepped hoodmould, bears the date 1496 in an oval inset.

Attached to the tower is an earlier stair tower, with a northeast elevation of three stories, a moulded stringcourse, and a crenellated ashlar parapet with moulded merlons. The ground floor of the stair tower is now a basement, revealed by a later flagged courtyard. The doorway to the stair tower has a chamfered quoined surround, a Tudor arched head, a massive lintel, and a stepped hoodmould. A tall, hollow chamfered mullioned 2-light window is to the northeast of the doorway. The first floor has a 19th-century single-light window with a chamfered surround and leaded lights, beneath a hoodmould. An earlier single-light opening with a plain surround is set above.

A service range to the rear, on the northwest elevation, is two stories high and three bays wide, with sash windows in flush stone surrounds. Two sashes retain glazing bars. A central ground floor window opening of three lights has a flush mullion and surround.

The principal range's southeast elevation is two stories high and five bays wide, with an ashlar front and a hipped roof to the southwest. The facade is severely plain, with sash windows set into the ashlar walling without surrounds. A first-floor cill band and moulded eaves run along the top. A doorway, off-centre between the fourth and fifth bays, is flanked by tapering square pillars supporting a plain frieze with a moulded cornice. It has a six-panelled door.

Inside, a full-height 17th-century turned baluster staircase is found within the stair tower, with a moulded stone doorcase leading into the tower. A first-floor room within the tower has a moulded plaster ceiling dating from around 1630, in a style reminiscent of the plasterwork at Renishaw Hall. The ceiling is divided into square panels with alternating square and diamond motifs. A moulded stone doorcase, and two 17th-century hearths (one later) with elaborately moulded surrounds are also present.