Wardell Hall

Wardell Hall

A house with attached cottage, dating from the 18th century with later alterations. The building is constructed of coursed stone rubble with coursed squared stone to the southern elevation and a stone slate roof.

The structure forms a linear range of domestic and farm buildings facing south-east (described as facing south for clarity). The main house comprises two bays, framed by ridge stacks with a central entrance and a rear continuous outshut containing the stairs. To the east stands a gable-entry single-bay cottage with its own outshut, which now incorporates the eastern bay of the house's outshut. To the west of the house is an additional bay with a secondary entrance providing access to the outshut. Beyond this to the west is a former cross-passage through the building range, with former farm buildings beyond that have been converted for domestic use.

On the south front, the two-storey house and western bay are framed with quoining, with rougher quoining to the cottage gable. The roof is continuous with two gable ends raised and coped with finely moulded kneelers. The central entrance features a stone surround with Tuscan jambs. The entrance in the western bay has an ovolo moulded, quoined surround with a massive lintel inscribed "AW 1708". Windows to the west bay have plain openings, whereas those of the house and cottage have monolithic plain stone surrounds, with the cottage's sills lowered. All windows have horned 4-pane sashes. The chimney stacks to the house and cottage gable-ends are ashlar with moulded cornices; the stack to the west bay is plain. The attached former farm range to the west is lower, still of two storeys, with slight irregularity to various openings and stonework suggesting that whilst domestic conversion involved some rebuilding, most walling is original. The door to the cross-passage has been retained, though blocked internally. A walled garden to the front preserves the footprint of a mistal (cow byre) added in the 1950s.

On the north (roadside) elevation, scattered openings are evident. Stair windows to both house and cottage have plain stone surrounds and retain 18th-century 6-over-6 sashes with ovolo moulded glazing bars. Two small windows to the outshut bay now incorporated into the cottage have late 19th-century fixed lights with margin glazing. The rightmost window has a 4-over-4 hornless sash with a lintel reused from an ovolo moulded mullioned window. The added west bay contains two inserted windows and a blocked taking-in doorway. The cross-passage door is planked with a horizontal slit overlight. Remaining openings to the former farm buildings have modern joinery, including a partially blocked doorway with plain stone surround and projecting drip course with pitching window above, a former cart entrance to the east, and upper taking-in doorways at either end.

The east gable includes the cottage entrance, which has a chamfered stone surround with the right jamb inscribed "I: 1767" and a 4-panelled door. To the right is a small window with ovolo moulded jambs and lintel. Above is another window with a projecting drip course; a long projecting drip course extends over, some way above, the doorway.

Internally, the house retains its 18th-century stair, a compact open-well stair with closed string. The ramped handrail has a tall grip set on turned balusters, the balusters featuring an unturned block separating a lower vase form from a tall column above. Top landing balusters are later replacements. The ground floor retains two 6-panelled doors, raised and fielded on one side. The door to the outshut room is a plank door with a 2-panelled face to the staircase. The first floor has a 6-panelled door, with later replacements elsewhere. The central entrance opens into the western room of the house, which retains a broad stone-arched fireplace, though this was damaged in the 20th century when made flush-faced prior to being boarded over.

The cottage retains a similar, undamaged fireplace, apparently reset as it sits against the party wall with the house, whereas the original flue rose to the gable-end chimney. The cottage's staircase is modern. The house's ground floor outshut room, now incorporated into the cottage, retains stone-built shelving. The roof structure to the house has been undersprayed with foam but retains hewn hardwood timbers, though some later replacement timbers are present.

The farm range interior has been refitted but retains a trussed roof structure, probably 19th-century.

The oldest part of the range is thought to be the two main ground floor rooms of the house, possibly dated to 1708. The western bay was added after this date; the 1708 inscribed door surround is not in its original position, with one jamb misaligned, suggesting it was originally used elsewhere, perhaps as the main entrance on the northern side before the rear outshut was constructed. The mullioned window lintel to the rear and the ovolo moulded window in the cottage gable are likely reused parts of the original structure. The western bay was added before or contemporaneously with the south side refacing, but before the cottage was constructed, at which point the house was already two storeys. The refacing appears contemporary with the Tuscan door surround and is probably mid-18th-century, though the window surrounds may be later given their different tooling. The cottage may have been added in 1767, as inscribed on the right jamb, but as the left jamb is misaligned with the lintel, this surround also appears reset. Cottage front windows have been enlarged with lowered cills, possibly with the installation of sash windows in the late 19th century. The reallocation of rooms between house and cottage occurred after 1989, before conversion of the farm buildings.

Though named a hall, Wardell Hall is not thought to have been the house of a gentry member, but rather that of a well-off yeoman farming family, probably called Wardell in 1708 (explaining the initials AW). A branch of the same family may have owned the neighbouring property to the south-west called Wardell House.