Grange Hall And Grange Hall Cottage

Grange Hall and Grange Hall Cottage

A house, now divided into two dwellings, built in 1614–20 for John Coates. The building was enlarged to the rear and given a chimney in the 17th to 18th centuries, then divided into two properties probably in the late 19th century when alterations were made to the south front.

The structure is built of gritstone blocks and rubble with a graduated stone slate roof. It stands 2½ storeys tall, comprising three bays with a large two-bay west wing, a shorter one-bay east wing, and a central stair turret to the rear. The quoins are of dressed stone.

The south facade features, in the first bay, a tall four-light 19th-century chamfered mullion window serving both ground and first floors. In bays two and three, a single-storey open porch with chamfered opening is topped by a deep moulded cornice and balustrade with roll-moulded parapet supported by squat moulded balusters; stone benches sit within the porch alongside a mid-17th-century board door with applied studded bands. Another board door to the left of centre is set in a surround with sawn stone jambs and a Tudor-style lintel, flanked by a three-and four-light mullioned window, both restored. The first floor has recessed chamfered mullion windows of three, two, and four lights; the gable window in bay three features three stepped lights with a hoodmould. A first-floor doorway above the porch in bay two is blocked; the gable above, much altered, has a chimney at its apex with quoins visible in the wall face below. The gable and end stack chimneys are 18th-century work, corniced, each with two or three flues.

The house's division into two properties runs to the right of the gable chimney stack. Grange Hall comprises the porch entrance in bay one and the rear west wing, while Grange Hall Cottage comprises bay three, the rear staircase, and the east wing.

In Grange Hall, a straight flight of stairs rises immediately inside the entrance, with a living room to the left. A 17th-century stair with remains of splat balusters stands at the north end of the rear wing. The first floor contains a post-and-panel partition beneath a massive tie beam and panelled doors with original fittings.

Grange Hall Cottage's front door opens into a large room, formerly divided by a partition along the western ceiling beam. A 17th-century panelling and overmantle ornament the east gable fireplace, and a south-west corner fireplace remains. A thin partition wall divides the left end of the room from the rear staircase of four straight flights with bulbous turned newels and balusters. A blocked mullioned window lies in the wall between the front room and rear east wing. On the first floor to the right, a fine early-to-mid 17th-century deeply moulded strapwork curves across the plaster ceiling, with relief vine scrolls filling the tympanum. Panelled doors with original fittings are present.

Kildwick was a grange of Bolton Abbey by the 14th century, when building work was underway on the bridge and church. The grange farm served as the principal manorial settlement. At the Dissolution in 1539, it was divided between two speculators: Robert Wilkinson of Bradford and Thomas Drake of Halifax. In the mid-16th century, Drake sold his share to John Garforth of Farnhill and subsequently to Henry Currer. Robert Wilkinson likely passed his share and Grange Hall to the Coates family around 1573. Deeds record the house's construction by John Coates. Roger Coates, a staunch Puritan persecuted at the Restoration, died in 1660 and was recorded as "of Kildwick Grange" on his tombstone. The inventory of another John Coates, dated 1708, survives and appears to include all the existing building with rear wings. The 18th-century history is linked with the Netherwood family; the corner fireplaces and end stacks date from this period. Nineteenth-century alterations include the south front gables, refenestration, and the division into two dwellings.