Smardale Hall And Adjoining Buildings

Smardale Hall and the adjoining buildings date from the 15th and 16th centuries. The Hall is constructed of coursed rubble and features a tower at each corner, banded just below the top. It has a graduated slate roof with stone chimneys and ball finials on the conical tower roofs. The building is two storeys high and has six bays. Most windows on both side elevations have two, three, or four lights in stucco surrounds, while a two-light window in the apex of the south gable is the only surviving example with a stone mullion. All doors are 19th and 20th century insertions.

Inside, a large segmental arch leads to the kitchen fireplace. An attached range of farm buildings once formed the south range of the Hall's original courtyard plan. These buildings have slobbered rubble walls and a graduated slate roof, and are also two storeys high. Blocked doors and windows can be seen on both side elevations. Internally, the hay loft was once the Great Hall, and some decorative plasterwork remains on the eastern wall. The thickness of the walls suggests that the south-east tower predates the other three, which may have been added for symmetry. A plan from around 1670 indicates a 14th-century tower-house in the east wing, built by the Smerdales (before 1388), while the rest of the house was constructed by the Warcops (before 1580).