Sunny Bank

Details

SE 087212
1/136

ELLAND
SUNNYBANK ROAD (south side)
Nos 25 to 29 (odd) (Sunnybank)

(Formerly listed as Nos 25 to 39 (odd), previously listed as Sunny Bank)

24.1.68

II*
House in more than one occupation, mainly mid C16. Timber framed exterior with hammer-dressed stone and stone slate roof. The house is essentially a long, gabled two storey block divided into two parts by a cross-passage.

The north elevation has three main gables all with king-post trusses with 'V'-struts. The two gables to the right are probably to the main hall with parlour wing, separated from the service end by a cross-passage which has a small gabled entrance with a lower ridge level and with a large stack backing on to it from the hall range. This northern entrance has ornate doorway with ogee lintel and herringbone studding to uprights. The south front shows marked differences in levels and materials. The service end is of two bays and two storey with stone wall with exposed king-post truss and has flat faced C19 mullioned windows inserted into earlier C17 wall of five lights with four-light window over to left bay and three-light windows to both floors to right bay which has quoins and a continuous outshut with cat-slide roof to north side. The end of the cross-passage has timber framing of close-studding to first floor with angle brace to wall plate and down post. The left hand two ranges to hall and parlour are gabled as at north side with exposed trusses with many 'V'-struts and have a higher roof line than cross-passage/service end, the posts are visible built into stonework with girding beam to first floor.

This is an important surviving partly timber framed building of quite complex development as evidenced by three different rooflines. In fact the house was not built all at once; this is clear from the timber posts in the south wall and the cross-passage which are not placed where they should be to support the existing structure. The oldest part of the structure can be seen at the south-end of the cross-passage. A timber post resting on a stylobat carries a bressumer and wall plate, and it is clear from the pegholes that these members were continued on both sides of the post, although they are now only visible on the west side. The next post to the east is 13' away. Pegholes on the bressumer indicate that there were once studs below as well as above it Presumably these were removed when the house was extended, because it was then that the cross-passage was made.

The deeds show that in 1472 the house came into the ownership of Thomas Wilkinson and in 1544 it passed to Henry Savile of Bradley Hall (q.v.). It would appear that the Saviles rebuilt the house before 1517, because they were rebuilding Bradley Hall in stone by that date. It seems most probable that the greater part of Sunnybank dates from c.1550. A more thorough survey of the older part might indicate its date; something prior to 1400 is not improbable.

Listing NGR: SE0876521197

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

338560

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pacey, A J, Elland Buildings, (1964)
Leyland, J, Views of Ancient Buildings of Halifax, (1819)
Walton, J, Early Timbered Buildings of the Huddersfield District, (1955)
Ambler, L, The Old Halls and Manor Houses of Yorkshire, (1913), 4
Pevsner, N, Radcliffe, E, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The West Riding, (1967), 626
Ford, T F, Thoresby Society Miscellanea in Thoresby Society Miscellanea, Vol. 28, (1928), 16

Other
J. Lister, H.A.S. (1902)

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