Rampside Hall

Rampside Hall is a large house dating to the late 17th century. It is constructed with roughcast over stone, with ashlar dressings, and has a graduated slate roof. The house is three storeys and an attic, with a five-bay facade and a double-depth plan, and a later wing to the rear left. The central doorway has an ovolo-moulded, quoined surround, featuring a vine carving on chamfer stops. The lintel is decorated with ogee panels and a carved vinetrail, and is topped by a hoodmould that extends over the double-chamfered cross-windows, which now have 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The upper-floor windows are in a similar style; bays one and five on the second floor have surrounds made of red sandstone. Shaped blocks support a wooden gutter. A parapet has been removed, but end dies remain with large ball finials on ornate pedestals, and there are ashlar gable copings. Twelve diagonally-set chimneys run along the length of the ridge. A lean-to porch, in the angle with the later wing, encloses a cross-boarded oak door with decorative iron hinges in an ovolo-moulded surround. The left return has a casement and four-pane sash window to the ground floor, and a cross-window and partially-blocked cross-window above. The interior features a massive transverse wall incorporating flues, with rooms formed by timber partitions and most rooms having beamed ceilings. Original features include a well in the cellar, an incomplete fireplace bressumer in the kitchen to the rear left, beneath which is a stone arch. A staircase in the rear centre rises through three floors and has an original oak balustrade of turned balusters, a deep-section handrail between square and rectangular newels with sunken panels and moulded caps. A chamfered ashlar fireplace is found on the first floor to the left. The house was built for the Knype family; a house on the site is mentioned in 1634, though the date of construction and for which family member remains uncertain. The building is considered to be of group value.