East Layton Old Hall And Attached Garden Gateway

A manor house with attached garden gateway, East Layton Old Hall has medieval origins with significant early 17th-century additions and alterations extending into the 20th century.

The main house is constructed of sandstone rubble with some ashlar dressings, topped with a roof combining stone slate in the lower half and pantile in the upper half. It is two storeys with a loft. The east front is arranged as 1:2:2 first-floor windows across four bays on the right-hand section of the main house, marked by quoins at the corners.

Reading from left to right, the elevation begins with a 20th-century vertically-panelled door below a deep lintel, with a 16-pane sash window on the first floor above. The next bay projects slightly and features a 2-light window in a 20th-century double-chamfered surround on the ground floor, paired with a 2-light double-chamfered mullion window on the first floor. A large projecting stepped external stack dominates the next section, punctuated by two 4-pane fire windows in double-chamfered surrounds on the ground floor. Beyond this are a 2-light double-chamfered mullion window on the ground floor and a single-light double-chamfered window with a 2-light double-chamfered mullion window on the first floor. A shaped kneeler and ashlar coping mark the left side of this section.

To the left, an added bay with left-hand quoins contains a small 4-pane window beneath a deep lintel on the ground floor and a 16-pane window on the first floor, with ashlar coping to the left and an ashlar stack at the left end.

The garden gateway, positioned to the left and partly incorporated into the added bay, is constructed of ashlar and features a central round-arched opening, rebated and fitted with hooks and crooks for a gate. The arch is flanked by shell niches, and an entablature is carried on two consoles decorated with jewelled strapwork. The rear of the gateway shows a roll-moulded arris to the arch, with the front matching this design except that the left shell niche is now hidden by the added cottage.

The rear elevation shows on the ground floor two 16-pane sash windows flanking a blocked doorway, with another blocked doorway near the right-hand window. On the first floor, a 16-pane sash window sits within a partial surround of a double-chamfered 2-light mullion window, paired with another 16-pane sash window. Between these windows are coats of arms of Sir Thomas Laton and his wife Maria, daughter of Sir William Fairfax, dated 1623. The rear of the gateway has its left shell niche concealed by the added cottage, otherwise matching the front design.

The left return features a central French window flanked by 12-pane casement windows on the ground floor, and two 12-pane casement windows on the first floor, all with projecting sills and deep lintels. The right return is largely 20th-century fenestration, though a double-chamfered first-floor window to the right of the large stepped external stack survives from an earlier period.

The interior, though not recently inspected, is documented in the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Vernacular Buildings Study Group Report No 513 as containing a chamfered basket-arched fireplace with two orders of voussoirs at the north end of the building on the ground floor, and a similar one in the east wall. The first floor of the north gable holds a chamfered Tudor-arched fireplace with a central butt-joint in the lintel, with another similar example in the loft.

The building's architectural history reflects its development from medieval origins through significant early 17th-century work commissioned by Sir Thomas Laton. The 1623 date on the rear coats of arms marks this major campaign of remodelling. A cottage was subsequently added, and substantial alterations and additions followed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building served as an inn called the Layton Arms in the late 19th century. Later work has included the lowering in height of both the roof and the two large chimneys. A 20th-century two-storey range extends to the left, which is not of special interest.