Old Hall

OLD HALL

Manor house, now house. Dated 1641. Built of rubble with stone slate roofs. The building has a double-depth plan with 2 storeys arranged in a 1:1:1 bay pattern, with stone quoins at the angles.

The principal feature is a central 2-storey gabled porch with quoins. One quoin to the right carries graffiti reading "AB" and "IW". The porch contains a 6-panel door with L-hinges set within an ashlar chamfered quoined surround with wave moulding on the arris. The right jamb bears the graffito "FW". The door has a Tudor-arched head with the letters "I" and "W" in the spandrels. Above this is a recessed panel on the lintel with raised characters reading "ANO DOM 1641" and decorative motifs, all beneath a hoodmould. The first-floor window is a 2-light design with double-chamfered mullions, the inner chamfer being hollow. The porch is finished with ovolo-shaped kneelers and moulded ashlar coping with obelisk finials. A single-light double-chamfered window appears on the ground floor of the left return.

Inside the porch is a flag floor. The left window has a Tudor-arched head. The inner door is of 6 fielded panels with butterfly hinges, set in a stop-chamfered Tudor-arched ashlar surround with interrupted jambs.

The first bay contains a ground-floor window of 3-light design with double-chamfered mullions (a 20th-century insertion) and a first-floor double-chamfered single-light window. The third bay has a 4-light mullion window on the ground floor and a 3-light mullion window on the first floor, both double-chamfered with hollow inner chamfers. The first-floor window bears masons' marks. Both bays have ovolo-shaped kneelers and moulded ashlar coping with obelisk finials, together with corniced ashlar end stacks.

The left return features on the ground floor a 5-light hollow-moulded chamfered mullion window and a 4-light double-chamfered mullion window with central king mullion, the latter partly of 20th-century date, joined by a continuous hoodmould. The first floor has two 5-light hollow-moulded chamfered mullion windows, each with a hoodmould. Two gables each contain a hollow-chamfered single-light window with a stanchion. The return is finished with ovolo kneelers (smaller at the central valley), moulded ashlar coping with obelisk finials, and corniced ashlar gable stacks.

The right return has, on the ground floor, a chamfered fire window and a 2-light hollow-chamfered mullion window to the left; a board door in an inserted opening and a 3-light chamfered mullion window to the right. The first floor has a 2-light double-chamfered mullion window to the left and a 3-light hollow-chamfered mullion window to the right. Two gables display ovolo kneelers in the centre and a bird's mouth profile to the right, with moulded ashlar coping to the left and slab coping to the right, together with corniced ashlar gable stacks.

Interior: In the ground-floor room to the left is an ashlar fireplace with stopped moulded arris and a Tudor-arched head bearing rosettes in the spandrels. To its right is a door of 6 fielded panels in a chamfered surround. Within the partition wall are paired doorways, chamfered, still retaining iron crooks and snecks which opened different ways, one perhaps leading to a former spiral staircase.

The kitchen to the right contains an inglenook fireplace with a stop-chamfered segmental arch bearing masons' marks, and a fire window in the rear wall. The beams and joists are chamfered, some of the latter being moulded. Several windows throughout carry masons' marks which correspond with those at Dale Foot in Bishopdale. Oak butt-jointed floor boards appear on the first floor.