Nappa Hall

Nappa Hall is a fortified manor house built in 1459 with a 17th-century wing, constructed for James Metcalfe. The building is of rubble with a stone slate roof and is considered one of the finest and least-spoilt fortified manor houses in the north of England.

The house is organised around a single-storey central hall flanked by a 4-storey western tower and a 2-storey eastern tower. A south-east wing projects forward at right angles from the eastern tower, with an entrance porch positioned in the angle formed between them. The towers have quoins.

The porch features a pointed arch with continuous hollow-chamfered moulding and label. On each return is a single-light chamfered window, and the porch has a parapet. The inner doorway is pointed-arched with continuous hollow-chamfered moulding and opens to a leaved 6-panel door. To the left are two cross-windows with cinque-cusped pointed lights, hood-moulds with headstops, quarry panes and iron bars, beneath a parapet.

The western tower serves as the main defensible unit. Its windows feature cinque-cusped pointed lights under hood-moulds. On the ground, first and third floors, the windows have headstops, quarry panes and iron bars. The ground floor has a 3-light window; to the right is a light vent to the spiral staircase running from ground to first floor. The first floor has a 2-light window with a light vent to the right. The second and third floors each have single-light windows. The tower is topped by a crenellated parapet with the head of a stair turret in the south-east corner.

The eastern tower comprises a kitchen and service wing with a sash window on the first floor and crenellated parapet. On the rear elevation is a projecting chimney stack.

The left return of the west tower has a board door in a 19th-century ashlar sandstone chamfered rusticated quoined surround with pointed arch, keystone and springers. Each floor has a cinque-cusped single-light window in a chamfered surround. A slightly-projecting chimney stack appears on the ground and first floors, with a string course and gargoyle below.

The right return of the east tower has two lattice windows in chamfered openings at basement level, and on the right two windows under a wide relieving arch. The ground floor has four sash windows with glazing bars in sandstone ashlar surrounds with interrupted jambs; the first floor has two similar windows. In the centre is a projection of a garderobe buttress. A corbelled fireplace or garderobe projects to the left on the first floor. A projecting turret occupies the south-east corner.

The west elevation of the south-east range features a central studded board door in a quoined surround with segmental-arched head. On either side of the ground floor are 3-light double-chamfered mullion windows with hoodmoulds, and 16-pane sashes above on the first floor. A double gable with lead rainwater head between is dated with a cast reading "T M JULY 1747" (Thomas Metcalfe, died 1754). The rear elevation of the south-east range has a single-light window in a chamfered quoined surround on each floor. The building is furnished with numerous lead rainwater pipes and fluted hopper heads.

The interior of the west tower contains a stone newel staircase from ground floor to roof. Wave-moulded cross-beams are supported on stone corbels, with remains of medieval joists visible. In the first-floor chamber are a fragment of plasterwork frieze, a chamfered fireplace and a chamfered doorway leading to a rear room with a stone chute in the wall leading to an external gargoyle. The hall contains a segmental arched fireplace and a doorway to the west tower. In the east tower is a late 18th-century to early 19th-century cantilevered dog-leg staircase with hollow-moulded soffits to the treads.

The building was described by John Leland as a "very goodly House" and for centuries belonged to the Metcalfes, one of the most important Wensleydale families.