Catterlen Hall

Catterlen Hall is a fortified tower with later hall wings, dating to the early 15th century, with ranges added in the 16th and 17th centuries. A panel over the main entrance, inscribed with the Vaux coat-of-arms and the date 1577, documents that Roland Vaux built the hall at that time. Another panel with the arms of Christopher Richmond, dated 1652, marks alterations.

The tower has thick pink sandstone walls laid on a projecting plinth of boulders, with projecting battlemented parapets and stone water spouts. It has a flat roof. The hall ranges have thinner walls under a graduated greenslate roof with large red sandstone chimney stacks. The rectangular tower stands two storeys high over a vaulted basement. It is adjoined by a lower two-storey, six-bay hall with a right-angled two-bay extension, forming an overall L-shape. The tower retains all its medieval features and is not part of the main domestic accommodation. Small, chamfered loops on the ground floor light the vaulted basement. Upper-floor windows are stone-mullioned, with two lights and cusped heads, topped with hoodmoulds; a panel with the Vaux arms is above one first-floor window. A rear second-floor doorway once led to a bretasche, supported by three surviving corbel stones. The hall has an off-centre Tudor-arched doorway, framed by an inscribed panel. Windows are stone-mullioned, with two and three lights and round-headed lights. One ground-floor window has been converted into a doorway, following the blocking of its original window opening. A large projecting chimney breast is on the right side. The extension has broad, central stone steps leading to an elaborate first-floor doorway of the 17th century, with an arch of raised projecting bands, all beneath a panel of arms and pediments. Three-light, 17th-century stone-mullioned windows are set under hoodmoulds. The rear of the hall is similarly windowed, with two converted into doorways, and a left external spiral stair turret. The rear of the extension has irregular 16th-century windows as well as large 17th-century mullioned and transomed windows, now blocked but with painted glazing bars. The extension continues to the left as a vaulted cellar, now with a 20th-century garage built over it, which is only visible from the rear.

Inside the tower, a spiral staircase rises the full height, entered by a medieval doorway from the hall. Original fireplaces and window seats remain. The hall has a segmental stone-arched inglenook and 16th-century beamed ceilings. A mural straight staircase leads to the upper floor, with a later spiral staircase to the rear. The interior of the extension features two 17th-century chimney pieces, inscribed C.M.R. 1657, for Christopher and Mabel Richmond.