Tolson Hall

Tolson Hall is a house, likely originally a hall with crosswings, built in 1638 for Thomas Tolson, a tobacco merchant. The west wing and hall were significantly altered and extended around 1800, while the east wing was heightened and partly rebuilt in the late 19th century. The building is rendered, except for the east wing, which is made of roughly coursed rubble. It features slate roofs adorned with 19th-century decorative barge-boards and finials, and has three 19th-century stone chimneys with square stacks set diagonally. The house has two storeys plus attics.

The garden elevation includes a central porch with a pitched roof, decorative barge-boards, and finials. There are two windows on either side of the porch: one 19th-century casement with an iron-framed opening light, and two sashes with 4-centred arched heads in stone surrounds dating to around 1800, one of which retains its original decorative iron glazing bars. There is also a later 19th-century sash window in the east wing that matches the others. The second floor has five sash windows with a central gabled dormer above.

Inside, there is a room featuring 17th-century panelling on two walls, which has been pieced together from the original house. This includes a carved panel with initials and the date 1638, representing Thomas and Anne Tolson, and additional 17th-century panelling on the east wall that was brought from elsewhere in the 19th century, dated 1687. The first floor contains two decorative plaster panels in adjoining rooms, with initials and dates 1638 and 1639, both featuring patterns of trailing tobacco leaves. The earlier panel also includes the heads of a goat and a stag.

The hall windows preserve some 17th-century decorative glass, including a quarry dated 1638 inscribed with "God by this meanes has sent what I on this house have spent," accompanied by illustrations of pipes and tobacco plugs. Another similarly dated quarry adds the words "All prayse unto his name that gave the meanes to build the same." The remaining quarries display various coats of arms.