Kilnsey Old Hall

Kilnsey Old Hall

A house, now a farm outbuilding, built in 1648 for Christopher Wade on a steep slope in Conistone with Kilnsey. It was altered to farm use probably around 1800 when it was reroofed. The building is constructed of limestone rubble with gritstone dressings and a graduated stone slate roof.

The structure adopts an L-shaped plan, consisting of a main range of four bays facing northeast and a rear three-storey single-bay wing projecting behind bay 4. The main range is three storeys with attics, though it is now unfloored at the downhill end and reduces to two storeys with attics at the other. Quoins mark the angles throughout.

The northeast façade displays several significant features. Bay 1 contains a board byre door with chamfered quoined jambs and lintel. Bay 2 features a cart entrance with a keyed segmental arch, the quoined jambs changing to indicate a raised archway, and a very weathered carved stone above the keystone. At a higher ground floor level in bay 4 is a doorway with hollow, fillet and quarter round moulding to quoined jambs; the lintel has a three-centred arch bearing two recessed plaques with raised lettering reading "1648 C W". Between the date and initials is carved a vertical sword with quillons and a simple knuckle bow. A flight of external stone steps to the left of this doorway rises to a board door in a chamfered quoined surround. At first-floor level, bay 1 contains a chamfered window with a socket for a missing vertical glazing bar, while bay 3 displays a fine six-light recessed chamfered mullion window with a king mullion and hood mould. On the second floor are blocked recessed chamfered mullion windows of two, two, three and two lights. The eaves have been raised or rebuilt, with a moulded kneeler and the base of a vase finial to the left; the roof is hipped to the right.

The left return gable was the principal façade of the original building. A chamfered plinth extends along the ground floor, which contains two two-light recessed chamfered mullion windows with missing mullions. At first-floor level is a central six-light similar window with a king mullion and hood mould; the second floor has a similar window of four lights with hood mould and small chamfered windows to the right. The third floor (attic storey) contains a two-light window. Moulded gable coping and kneelers with moulded square vase finials crown this façade.

The rear (south) façade of the main range has a chamfered plinth to the right and a centrally inserted door with chamfered quoins to the left jamb. Recessed and chamfered mullioned windows throughout—of two and one light to the first floor and of three and three lights to the second floor—are all blocked. External stacks are positioned to the left (in the angle of the rear wing) and to the right of centre; their tops are truncated and roofed over. The rear wing displays three-light windows to the ground and first floors, above which are two single-light windows, the right one being blocked. A projecting external stack with a corniced ashlar flue stands to the left of the gable. Moulded kneelers and gable coping finish this wing.

The interior retains seventeenth-century plasterwork and fireplaces at first and second floor levels on the rear wall of the main range. From left to right these comprise a scrolled frieze apparently part of a window surround below the original ceiling; a fireplace with moulding similar to the original doorway and an overmantle with possible fleurs de lis, with remains of a date showing "16" and the letters "E W" or "T W". Above this fireplace is another on the second floor, blocked, with quoined jambs. To the right is a vertical scar of a demolished partition wall, and further right a fine arched fireplace with voussoirs at first-floor level is blocked and partly concealed by an inserted rubble cross wall. Further plasterwork remains on the inner face of the wall with the cart arch: a frieze with rose, acorn and vine leaf motifs in high relief to the left of the original cross wall line; to the right is a series of panels with possible tree of life, vine scrolls, winged motif with lozenge and pomegranate, with further plain plaster to the second floor flanking the blocked windows. The rear wing is entered through the 1648 doorway; the room to the right of the main range is plastered, has recessed joists with stepped run-out chamfer stops and twentieth-century cattle stalls. The rear wing is floored; rounded corbels support a long spine beam which has stepped run-out stops. The fireplaces in the gable at ground and first floors have deeply chamfered large quoins and single-block lintels cut to a slightly cambered arch. The roof structure overall employs iron-bolted queen post trusses, elaborately constructed to carry the roof around the hipped main range to wing junction.

The site formerly belonged to Fountains Abbey as an important grange and collecting point for sheep sheared on Malham Moor. In the mid-sixteenth century the estate was purchased by the Yorke family, who subsequently sold it to Christopher Wade. His initials on the door lintel indicate his responsibility for the present building. His son, Cuthbert, served as a Captain of Royalist forces during the Civil War and was fined, but the estate appears to have survived. The Wade family remained in occupation until 1693, though the house was probably tenanted by 1745, by which time the estate was heavily mortgaged. Whitaker's "Craven" (1805) described the building as "entirely dismantled and now used for agricultural purposes, and is fast becoming a ruin".