Monkton Old Hall

Monkton Old Hall is a Grade I listed house built in grey limestone, some squared and some rubble, with slate close-eaved roofs. The building is roughly T-shaped and dates from the medieval period, comprising a first-floor hall with an undercroft beneath it, and a cross-wing. The hall runs on an east-west axis and its undercroft extends under the cross-wing. Most windows are leaded metal windows installed in the 1930s and 1950s.

The south side of the hall has three long leaded windows with flat heads, installed in 1950. The undercroft features a segmental-pointed window to the left and another window to the right, positioned against the cross-wing projection. The west end displays squared stonework, a stone-corniced west stack, and a large pointed window on the left in grey stone with a chamfered former door. This door was removed from the hall's south side and appears medieval, though it is said to be an 18th-century insertion.

The cross-wing's south section is older and projects with a broad, slightly half-hipped roof, which replaced a parapet with chimneys removed in 1979. A blocked pointed chamfered medieval doorway appears in the west side wall, with the steps removed in 1979, and a square twentieth-century window above it. The south end has squared stonework with a corbelled upper floor featuring two square twentieth-century windows. An 1853 view shows three windows and a parapet with three chimneys in this location. Below these sits a giant pointed recess with cut stone voussoirs framing the lower floors. A pointed chamfered medieval doorway leads to an undercroft porch with a square window to its left. Tiny windows sit above under the arch apex: a small one in a stone frame to the left, a blank panel at the centre, and a tiny lancet to the right.

The east side of the cross-wing shows much disturbed masonry, coursed and squared to the left and possibly rebuilt. Three square-headed windows light the upper floor, with the centre one blank; stone sills appear on the centre and right windows. The ground floor has a window to the left, a narrow window to the centre left, and two close-set windows to the right, the rightmost being a cambered-headed 3-light with stone sills. Below are marks of a removed low building and a rectangular light to the undercroft.

The north wall to the right of the northeast wing features a pointed medieval stone doorway to the left, chamfered with diagonal stops and fitted with a twentieth-century oak door. A leaded window lights the first floor beneath a section of wall corbelled on a stone slab, with the corbelling stepped up to the right. The north wall of the hall has a lateral chimney projection with a splayed upper part and a tall cylindrical stack. The wall to the right was rebuilt after the northwest wing was removed. To the left of the door is a splayed angle to the rear northeast wing with two loops serving a stair.

The northeast wing has a massive square north chimney projection with battered sides and a square stack. A small stone south-end stack also appears. The west side has renewed 6-pane sashes at ground level lighting the basement, a tall blocked opening to the left of centre apparently breaking the internal floor level, and a first-floor left leaded window. The north end has a small upper window to the right of the chimney. The east side features a straight joint to the left, a loop to the first floor left, and a window to the right, with a small attic window above. A late nineteenth-century sloping buttress sits at basement level at the centre, with a boarded low door against the straight joint to the left.

The interior is entered through a tiled passage. The hall to the west is limewashed with an open timber roof on stone corbels, supported by three nineteenth-century arch-braced collar trusses. A pointed blocked medieval door sits on the left end of the north wall. The east wall is framed by a giant pointed arch with stone voussoirs. A cambered-headed doorway at the centre is fitted with a twentieth-century oak door, while a segmental-pointed former door to the right, in a stone surround, is part-blocked. Two small loops under the arch head light the cross-wing upper floor. A large sixteenth-century west fireplace, moved from the south bedroom, features stone piers, heavy corbels, and a monolith chamfered cambered lintel, with rubble stone above rising to a projecting shield. Small stone lamp-shelves flank each side.

The cross-passage has nineteenth-century joists. Two steps down appear at the north end and two steps south of the hall, with steps at the southwest corner to a former southwest door. The south-end window has a splayed reveal. Two rooms to the east feature nineteenth-century partitions and nineteenth to twentieth-century character. The southwest room has a splayed reveal to a small south lancet, and a corner fireplace with a tooled lintel on corbels, likely twentieth-century. The present kitchen lies to the north, followed by a narrow WC with an east window in a splayed reveal.

East of the north entrance is a winding stair with a square-head opening and a right jamb of tooled chamfered stone. An opening to the north leads to the kitchen, then a small northeast loop, indicating the north range is an addition. The stair winds down to a long east-west undercroft. Three bays feature broad square diagonal ribs and three transverse ribs, which do not appear at the west end. A nineteenth-century fireplace sits at the centre north with a shelf on corbels, and 4 steps in the wall lead to a blocked northwest door. A narrow light with a splayed reveal appears at the east end. The south wall has segmental-pointed heads to two windows, and an opening at the left with two steps up leads to a segmental-pointed entry to a low south porch with a plastered curved vault. An opening with a stone lintel on the porch's west wall enters a low parallel curved-vaulted chamber. A splayed recess appears on the west, and a large splayed recess on the south, infilled with a small window.

The northeast wing contains a vaulted former kitchen accessed by steps from the winding stair. A rough curved vault runs north-south, with two recesses on the east separated by a tapering pier; the left one adjoins a north-end fireplace, while the right one may once have been a window. The north-end fireplace features a big stone jamb on the left and a heavy oak lintel. The west side has two recesses with jambs descending to the floor and small twentieth-century 6-pane windows set high.

The bedroom above the kitchen has a corner entry, two corbels on the west wall and two on the east, a tiled floor, and a 1950 grey stone north fireplace with a chamfered lintel. The south end has a square-headed recess to the left adjoining a long recess at the south end of the east wall with a small loop.

The stairs continue up to the upper floor of the south cross-wing. Boarded floors display the stone voussoirs of the hall arch to the right, with a small loop. The north end has a window to the left of an opening to the stairs; the wall is thinner at gable level. Three-sided nineteenth-century ceilings appear throughout. Two bathrooms sit to the east. The south-end main bedroom has a square-headed narrow recess on the west wall with a loop into the hall to its right and a twentieth-century window to the left. Two similar windows face south, with one to the east.

The winding stairs continue up with a loop on the west to the attic of the north wing. Stone jambs appear at the top of the stair, with a corner plank door fitted with a grey stone cambered lintel. A nineteenth-century roof is concealed by the ceiling. A northeast corner fireplace features a chamfered grey stone massive lintel, with a twentieth-century window to the left and one to the east.