Scow Hall

House, 16th and 17th century with early 19th-century addition and alteration, and 20th-century restoration. Timber framing encased in coursed squared gritstone with graduated stone slate roof to the west end and large squared gritstone blocks to the east end, which was roofless at the time of survey. Two storeys and five bays, with the three right-hand bays in ashlar blocks and two left-hand bays in poorer quality stone.

The facade features a pointed-arched doorway with chamfered quoined jambs and hoodmould at centre. To the left of the door are three- and five-light recessed and chamfered mullion windows to the ground floor, with similar three-light windows above. To the right of the door are recessed and cavetto-moulded mullion windows: four- and two-lights to the ground floor, and two-, three- and two-lights above. The left side has a hollow-moulded gable coping and corniced stack, with remains of similar coping to the right. A large stack with battlemented crest straddles the ridge to the left of the door, and a large corniced stack stands far right.

The rear elevation shows roofless and roofed sections. The roofless portion has a doorway to the left and a three-light mullion window to the right in the rear outshut. The roofed centre has a 19th-century outshut to the left. The main wall has a former three-light (now two-light) cavetto-moulded mullion window to the left and an inserted two-light window to the right, with a two-light mullion window to the first floor above. The left return has a gable wall built to water-shot courses. The right return features a chamfered plinth, a two-light cavetto-moulded window to the right (mullion missing) with a projecting stone sink to the left between the window and chimney stack.

Interior: The building is a five-bay or larger timber-framed structure with a rear aisle preserved in the cross-walls and roof trusses of the 17th-century phase. Truss 1, between bays 1 and 2, has jowelled principal posts on padstones supporting a cambered tie beam and a king-post roof-truss infilled with paired diagonal struts parallel to the principal rafters. The two tiers of trenched purlins and ridge piece are restored. A stud partition with wattle and daub infill below the tie beam is supported by a beam below the present ground-floor ceiling level, which has a diagonal groove on the west side indicating a former stair position.

Truss 2 is positioned on the line of the change in masonry on the front wall; the front post is visible and the end of a horizontal timber is tenoned into it. This timber was sawn off when the massive mantel beam was inserted and the stone stack constructed. The stud partition and roof truss at first-floor level are smoke blackened on the west face, and the stepped stack is built within the former smoke bay. On the ground floor, a wattle and daub screen is built above the mantel beam level, inside the chimney cavity, possibly the remains of a wattle and daub firehood or forming a side flue to an oven. A stone-lined cupboard with an early 18th-century wooden-framed door now occupies the probable oven position.

Roof trusses 3 and 4 were dismantled at the time of survey but were said to have been similar to nos 1 and 2. The framing of the rear aisle survives at the east end of the building: two principal posts with slightly curved braces carry the aisle plate; the rear right post has a less substantial brace similar to a jetty bracket. The massive east stack was built against this truss, with a fireplace having a wide segmental arch flanked by ovens.

During restoration, the following features were noted: the underside of the wall plates had mortice and peg holes indicating the position of studs and window bars; the windows in the stone building follow the pattern of the earlier fenestration. The wall plates were composed of two lengths of timber linked with an edge-halved and stop-splayed joint. The rear aisle continued across the position of the present 19th-century rear outshut but did not continue to the present west gable line.

Historical context: Scow Hall (spelt Scough) was occupied in the later 16th century by John Beckwith. In 1596 John Brierey was the owner; his memorial is in Fewston churchyard. John Brierey died in 1613, and Mary Brierey, probably his daughter, married Charles Fairfax of Menston in 1625. Sir Ferdinando Fairfax was living at Scow in 1612, and his children were born there in 1613, 1614 and 1616, amongst them Thomas, second Lord Fairfax, Cromwell's second in command, whose main home was Denton Hall. In 1715 William Wilkinson became the new owner, and in 1733 it passed by marriage to the Fawkes family of Farnley Hall. The house was tenanted for most of the 18th and 19th centuries, fell into decay in the 20th century and was used as a farm building until the present owner undertook complete restoration, which was still in progress at the time of survey.