Scales Hall And Barn Adjoining

Scales Hall and Barn Adjoining

A partly fortified house with extensions and an adjoining barn, dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, with additions and alterations made in the 17th and 19th centuries. The barn itself dates from the late 16th century.

The main house is built of thick walls constructed from large blocks of pink sandstone, with extensions of similar sandstone rubble. It is covered by graduated green slate roofs with coped gables and ball finials, topped by large 17th-century dressed sandstone ridge chimney stacks. The barn is of similar sandstone rubble construction with a red sandstone slate roof.

The building is arranged in an H-shaped plan, consisting of two storeys with four bays, flanked by single-bay gabled cross wings. A left rear two-storey, four-bay barn adjoins the main structure. A central 20th-century door sits within a 17th-century chamfered stone surround.

On the left side are early 16th-century two-light stone-mullioned windows with rounded heads, set under a continuous hoodmould. Beyond a sloping buttress is a small firewindow with a chamfered surround. The right side features sash windows in 19th-century stone surrounds, with a blocked window further right. Upper-floor sash windows are set in 17th-century stone architraves, though the central stone mullions have been removed. A small firewindow sits above the entrance, and a central roof crease suggests an earlier extension or porch that would have covered the firewindow.

The left kitchen wing is earlier than the right wing and shows 17th-century alterations designed to balance the facade. It retains a former two-light window with the mullion removed, set under a hoodmould, and an upper-floor large 17th-century two-light window with dripmould and an oval gable vent. The return wall has two-light chamfered stone-mullioned windows, some partly blocked, and two replaced with 19th-century sashes. A small central kitchen firewindow is present. The right wing has a former two-light window with mullion removed beneath a large 17th-century mullioned-and-transomed window with dripmould. Its return wall contains partly-blocked two-light windows under hoodmoulds, an upper-floor blocked 17th-century cross-mullioned window flanked by two three-light similar windows.

The rear of the original house features a central 20th-century studded oak door in a 17th-century quoined surround with a keyed lintel under a cornice. A small left casement window in a stone surround and upper-floor two-light flat stone-mullioned windows are also present. A similar doorway with a sash window in a 19th-century stone surround appears to the side of the kitchen wing. The right wing has a rear double gable of two bays with 17th-century three- and four-light mullioned windows, those on the upper floor also featuring transoms, all set under dripmoulds. An oval gable window sits in the pediment, with a similar window in the return wall. Two-light 17th-century cellar windows are present.

The barn has the appearance of a bastle house, with extremely thick walls, an off-centre upper-floor chamfered-surround doorway, and two-light stone-mullioned windows. A ground-floor blocked 19th-century doorway and two-light flat stone-mullioned windows are present. Further right is a casement in a 19th-century surround, and to the left is a loft doorway. The rear is covered by a 19th-century outshut. A reused lintel dated 1591, found in an adjoining barn, suggests a date of 1591 for this barn.

The interior of the original house contains a formerly external early 16th-century gable doorway with a studded oak door, complete with its original rear drawbar in its tunnel. The principal room features a large stone segmental-arched fireplace and a complete Tudor beamed ceiling. A small 17th-century staircase is present in the right extension. The kitchen wing has a late 16th-century large stone segmental-arched fireplace, and another fireplace which has since been removed.

This is one of the earliest houses of this type in Cumbria. Further information on this building can be found in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, new series, volume 32, pages 80-83.