Raventofts Hall

Raventofts Hall is a house that dates from the 17th century, with possible earlier origins, and has undergone alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of coursed gritstone rubble and features a purple slate roof. The building is two storeys high and consists of three bays, with a lower two-storey, one-bay block to the right. The layout is T-shaped due to a two-storey range at the rear. The windows are arranged irregularly. There is a 20th-century gabled porch with a boarded door to the left of the centre, two sash windows to the left, a four-light chamfered mullioned window and a single-light window to the right, and another sash window at the far right. On the first floor, from left to right, there is a six-pane sash window, a two-light 20th-century casement, two single-light windows, another six-pane sash, and a single light. The gable copings and a large central ridge stack are notable features. The rear wing includes mullioned windows and later openings. Although the interior was not inspected during the resurvey, it has been reported to contain 17th-century panelling, a staircase, and a priest's hiding place.

Historically, Raventofts Hall served as the residence of the Forester, the chief official of the Archbishop of York, during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Walworth family held this office until the early 17th century. John Walworth was convicted for his involvement in the Rising of the North in 1569 but was not executed. The estate was later sold to the Ingilby family of Ripley, and during the Civil War, it was owned by Peter Ingilby. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the house became a centre for Catholicism in Nidderdale, although in the mid-18th century, it passed to Stephen Ingilby, a conformist, who allowed a priest to stay at Raventofts but later provided a site in Bishop Thornton village for a priest's house with a chapel room.