Raventofts Hall

SE 26 SE 8/26 6.3.67

BISHOP THORNTON RIPLEY ROAD (west side, off) Raventofts Hall

II

House. C17 and possibly earlier, with C19 and C20 alterations. Coursed gritstone rubble, purple slate roof. 2 storeys, 3 bays, with lower 2- storey, 1 bay block to right. 2-storey range to rear (west) gives a T- shaped plan. Irregular fenestration. C20 gabled porch with board door to left of centre; 2 sashes to left; 4-light chamfered mullioned window and single light window to right; sash far right. First floor, left to right: 6-pane sash, 2-light C20 casement, 2 single-light windows, 6-pane sash, single light. Gable copings and large central ridge stack. Rear wing contains mullioned windows and later openings. Interior not inspected at resurvey but reported to contain C17 panelling and staircase and a priest's hiding place. During the C15 and C16 Raventofts Hall was the residence of the Forester, the Archbishop of York's chief official. The Walworth family held the office until the early C17. John Walworth was convicted of complicity in the Rising of the North in 1569 but he was not executed. The estate was sold to the Ingilby family of Ripley and during the Civil War was owned by Peter Ingilby. During the later C17 and early C18 the house had become the main centre of Nidderdale Catholicism but in the mid C18 the estate passed to Stephen Ingilby, a conformist. He allowed the priest to stay at Raventofts but later gave a site in Bishop Thornton village for a priests house with a room fitted as a chapel (Saint Joseph's Presbytery (qv)). Father Hugh Aveling, 'The Catholic Recusants of the W R of Yorkshire'. Proceedings of the Leeds Phil and Lit Society, X, Part VI, September 1963, p 191. B Jennings, A History of Nidderdale, 1967, p 111, 380, et al.

Listing NGR: SE2600864985