Countersett Hall

Countersett Hall is a manor house dating to 1650, built for Richard Robinson. It is constructed of rubble with a stone slate roof. The main facade has two storeys and originally features a 1:1:4 window arrangement on the first floor, with a later two-storey porch added to the second bay. Quoins mark the corners. The porch has a part-glazed four-panel door set within a round-arched ashlar surround with imposts and interrupted jambs. Above the keystone is a stone inscription reading 'R / R M 1650', and above that, a stepped hood-mould. A stepped three-light window with a hood-mould sits above the porch, and a pigeon-loft is contained within the coped gable, featuring corbel-shaped kneelers. On the left return of the porch is a single-light window on the first floor.

On the ground floor to the left is a two-light flat-faced mullion window with a hood-mould. To the right is a seven-light double-chamfered mullion window, initially comprised of two windows of three and two lights, now featuring two six-pane sash windows, all united under a continuous hood-mould, stepped over the first window. The first floor to the left has a two-light double-chamfered mullion window. To the right, there is a three-light double-chamfered mullion window, a fire window with a trefoil head and wave moulding on the arris, and two further three-light double-chamfered mullion windows. The roof features shaped ovolo kneelers and an ashlar coping, with corniced stacks at the ends of the building and between bays four and five. A single-storey lean-to extension to the right has a leaved board door and a sash window with glazing bars.

The rear elevation displays two two-light chamfered-mullion windows, one single-light chamfered window, and a blocked window. The left return has two single-light windows, and one chamfered single-light opening with a drip-mould.

The interior features a section of a beehive oven in the hall. The parlour incorporates a chamfered segmental-arched fireplace, panelled shutters, panelling, a niche cupboard, and moulded beams. Upstairs, a room over the hall contains a decorated cupboard door, while a room over the parlour has a stone fireplace with a four-centred pointed arch. A 17th-century door with a splatted grille provides access to a rear bedroom. The roof contains curved-principal rafter trusses.

Richard Robinson became the first Quaker in Wensleydale in 1652, and clandestine meetings were held in the parlour of Countersett Hall prior to the construction of the nearby Meeting House. George Fox visited Countersett Hall in 1652 and again in 1677.