Scotton Old Hall

Scotton Old Hall is a house of exceptional historical and architectural significance, incorporating 15th-century and 17th-century construction with 19th-century repairs and a major restoration around 1980. The building displays a remarkable evolution from a medieval timber-framed hall house to a substantial stone manor.

Construction and Materials

The hall and west wing are built of coursed squared gritstone, while the east wing combines limestone rubble and cobbles enclosing timber framing. Limestone and gritstone are used for dressings and quoins throughout. The roof is covered with graduated stone slates.

Plan and Structure

The house follows a hall and two cross wings plan, standing two storeys high with attics in the west wing. The layout comprises a two-bay hall flanked by a one by three-bay east wing and a one by six-bay west wing.

North Entrance Front

Access is now from the north side through an entrance in an enclosed porch on the east side of the west wing, positioned under an original outshut. The entrance features a fine original 17th-century board door set within a moulded round arch with imposts and keystone. A continuous hoodmould runs around the hall and west wing (the gritstone sections), except on the south gable end, and steps up over this doorway.

An external stone stair leads to a wide first-floor doorway cut through an earlier window on the west wing gable; this stair covers a ground-floor window below. All stone-dressed windows feature recessed chamfering except those on the north gable of the east wing.

The central hall has a restored six-light window at ground level and two two-light windows at first floor. The west wing gable contains one-light and two-light windows, with a continuous first-floor string course and a dripmould over the attic window. The east wing north gable displays a six-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window of limestone with a hoodmould at ground floor, and a similar three-light window above.

The east wing roof is steeply pitched and lacks kneelers. A corniced ridge stack stands forward of the junction with the hall roof. A large square stack straddles the hall ridge close to the junction with the west wing, which has bulbous kneelers and a corniced stack at the gable apex.

South (Rear) Facade

The rear elevation features a board door in a chamfered shallow-pointed arched doorway in the east wall of the west wing, with a four-light window to the left and single lights to the right on both floors. The hall has two two-light windows on each floor, positioned to the left of a quoined straight join marking the change in building material—probably the location of the original south entrance into a cross passage of the timber-framed house.

The west wing south gable has ground-floor windows inserted around 1980. Single-light windows with dripmoulds sit close to the corners at first and attic floors, leaving a central space for chimney flues. The east wing has restored mullioned windows.

Side Elevations

The left return (east wing) has wooden-framed windows throughout, installed during the restoration around 1980 to replace 19th-century originals. Two blocked windows appear at the far right—two lights at ground floor and one light above. A possible blocked doorway occupies the centre, with a straight join in stonework at the far left. The top of a timber post and wallplate are visible to the left and centre.

The right return (west wing) features a 20th-century porch at bay five, where the inner board door with chamfered surround is flanked by single-light windows. A blocked doorway, now a two-light window, appears at the far left. Three two-light windows occupy bays two, three and four at ground level. The first floor has three two-light windows and an inserted three-light window. The dripmould on this wall stops short of the right corner.

Interior Features

The building contains several features of considerable historical and architectural importance. The north doorway opens into a porch beside a large back-to-back fireplace serving both the hall and west wing. The doorways into the west wing and hall have wavy wooden lintels, one partly defaced.

The hall fireplace retains original chamfered wooden jambs with pyramid stops and plank panelling on each side. The ceiling cross beam rests on a beam parallel to but within the line of the north hall wall—possibly marking the limit of the original timber-framed house. A 20th-century staircase now provides circulation.

The timber-framed partition wall between the hall and east wing is of particular interest. It contains three doorways, two now blocked, which probably served as service doors to pantry, buttery and stairs or kitchen passage. The doorheads represent two phases of construction: two curved braces originally formed Gothic arches; wavy lintels were inserted in the 17th century—one remains in the open doorway, while the other two were repositioned at the entrance, probably during 17th-century remodelling. During the restoration around 1980, exposed plaster on the hall side of the partition wall, to the left of the service doors, was discovered to be covered with early graffiti including written lines, a shield and compass-drawn circles dating from the 16th century.

In the east wing ground floor, the north room fireplace with external stack, probably blocked in the 19th century, has a massive stone lintel with shallow pointed arch in a square chamfered surround and single-block jambs. Sockets for shelves and pot holders remain visible. The south room contains a corner fireplace built in the 18th or 19th century.

The east wing roof construction is of particular importance. The centre and south end are carried on three cross-braced crown-post trusses where the upright is thickened at the top to receive the brace from the tie beam. These braces are crossed by a second pair running outwards from tie beam to side purlins and rafters. Curved braces also link the crown post to the collar purlin. Roofs of this type, originally exposed on the gable ends and visible from the first floor, were common in York in the 15th century with examples surviving in Knaresborough and Ripon, but this occurrence in a rural building is exceptional and suggests a builder of considerable prestige.

In the west wing, the fireplace backing onto the hall has a chamfered bressumer and jambs with plank and muntin side panelling. Timber-framed partitions date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The south room contains a stone pillar which probably formed part of a large fireplace and oven structure, the flue of which survives. The west wing first floor remained unpartitioned until around 1980 and had no access to the rest of the building.

Historical Context

The Manor of Scotton was owned by William de Nessfield in 1348 and in 1387 became part of the extensive estates of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The manor house appears to have been rented out from then until 1653 when Sir Christopher Martyn sold Scotton Manor to George Watkinson. This period covers the major building phases of the house, though the sequence of occupation is not certain.

The most significant family associated with the property is the Pulleyns. In 1544 Walter Pulleyn, Steward of Fountains Abbey, lived at Scotton Hall. In 1551 he was charged with removing tiles and stone from the old chapel to repair his mansion house. He married Frances Vavasour whose son by a previous marriage married Edith Fawkes, Guy Fawkes's mother, shortly after 1587. Guy Fawkes probably spent his youth at Scotton, providing a strong local link with the events of the Gunpowder Plot.

In 1653 George Watkinson, a Quaker, took over Scotton Hall—a significant development in the house's history. His grave is located in the nearby burial ground. In 1658 George Watkinson bought the chantry house and lands, and in 1666 George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, came to Scotton to what he recorded in his journal as "a great and glorious meeting". The upper floor of the west wing may have been converted to agricultural use, though outside stairs were also used for religious meeting rooms in private houses—this may have served as a Quaker meeting house.

During the 18th century the house was again tenanted, belonging to the Slingsbys of Scriven. By the 19th century and into the 20th century it had deteriorated into a poor tenant farm. During the restoration around 1980, a pair of thumbscrews of a type used during the 17th century was found in the wattle and daub of the wall above the service doors.