Summary
A former farmhouse of the C15, altered in the C16 and extended in the C18. Following a thatch fire in the C21, the house was sensitively repaired reusing original materials where possible.
Reasons for Designation
Pointells Hall, formerly known as Nettle Hall, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural Interest: the hall retains a significant proportion of its C15 and C16 fabric. The timber frame is constructed with good quality materials and erected with considerable craftsmanship;
* Plan: important elements of the medieval hall house remain and the C16 ceiling over of the hall demonstrates the evolution in domestic plan-form at that time;
* Interior: the significant survival of interior fixtures and fittings, such as the hall window and cross-passage door with a wooden hinge and latch, enhance the special interest of the house.
History
Pointells Hall originated as a C15 hall house, ceiled over and a stack inserted in the C16; the plan-form of the main range largely retains the C16 configuration. In 1723 an outbuilding was built to the north, possibly serving as a wash house or other function associated with farming. The farmhouse was recorded as Pointells in the Hearth Tax of 1640 until 1813 when the deeds record that the name was changed to Nettle Hall. It was a working farm with estate cottages and a barn until 1941 when the farm was broken up into a number of landholdings. A flat-roofed link between the main range and the C18 outbuilding was remodelled in the C20, creating an integrated rear wing, and a further flat-roofed extension was added to the north of this wing in 1982. The windows are C20 casements. A thatch fire in 2001 revealed further historic fabric in the main range; the farmhouse was sensitively restored where necessary and a conservatory was added to the west of the C18 wing. Originally described as Nettle Hall in the National Heritage List for England, the house was officially renamed Pointells Hall in 2011.
Details
MATERIALS: the main range is timber framed and plastered with a thatched roof. The C18 outbuilding is timber framed with a tiled roof.
PLAN: the former hall house has a central hall with service rooms to the west and the high end to the east. An outbuilding was added to the north-east in the C18 and linked to the principal range in the C20, creating a ‘L’-shaped plan.
EXTERIOR: the gable roof has an off-centre ridge stack and decorative boarding at the eaves of the gable ends. The south elevation has one large eyebrow dormer and an off-centre C20 boarded door with a simple hood in the approximate position of the cross passage entry, flanked by C20 casements. The north elevation has a small roof dormer. At the ground floor, the probable position of the rear cross passage entry is marked by a scar in the external plaster. There are C20 casements at the ground floor, but part of the diamond-mullion hall window remains at attic level.
Attached to the north by a flat-roofed link remodelled in the C20, is a smaller, timber-framed outbuilding bearing a date plaque of 1723, extended further to the north in 1982. It, too, has wide barge boards to the gable ends and C20 fenestration. To the west of the wing is a C21 conservatory.
INTERIOR: on the ground floor of the main range, the room divisions of the hall are legible. The central room (former hall) has an inserted C16 stack with an inglenook fireplace, an exposed bread oven and chamfered bressumer. The wall studs, jowled storey posts and sole plate remain and are of substantial scantling, jointed and pegged. The inserted C16 floor frame has substantial, transverse bridging beams with wide chamfers, stops and carpenters marks; the joists are in situ. One of the door surrounds from the screens passage is still in use; it comprises a four-centred arch head with plain spandrels, chamfered jambs and a worn timber threshold. It leads to the room at the former service end where the second passage door mostly survives, exposed during the post-fire restoration; the lower portion of the right-hand jamb has been removed, but vestiges of wooden hinges and part of the door latch are clearly evident in the left hand jamb. In this room the sole plate, studs, midrail and corner braces remain and part of an original window frame and glass survives embedded in a C20 casement. The room at the east end of the range (the former solar) has an inglenook with a bressumer and another bread oven with an iron door. There is a midrail encased in the chimney above, but much of the wall and floor frame in this room has been replaced.
C20 stairs lead to the upper floor where the cross frames of the hall and room partitions remain. In the central room, much of the upper roof structure was replaced after the fire but replicates the form of the C15 trusses. The wall plates survive and part of the five diamond-mullioned, hall window is exposed. It is said that there are wide floor boards. At the west end, the wall plate, wall studs, end cross frame and room partition remain. Some rafters and a purlin have been replaced, but the roof structure is substantially intact and includes a pair of windbraces and jointed and pegged purlins to each pitch. The roof structure above the collars is not visible, but is thought to consist of coupled rafters. At the east end, some rafters have been replaced. A jowled storey post is exposed in the modern stair well and the wall plate, some studs and corner braces remain.
The interior of the C18 outbuilding has been remodelled; where exposed, the timber frame is of slight scantling using the lower quality timber usually associated with framing of this date.
Pointells Hall was formerly listed as Nettle Hall.
