Oakwell Hall Including Boundary Wall
OAKWELL HALL INCLUDING BOUNDARY WALL, NUTTER LANE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1134609
- Date first listed:
- 29-Mar-1963
- List Entry Name:
- Oakwell Hall Including Boundary Wall
- Statutory Address:
- OAKWELL HALL INCLUDING BOUNDARY WALL, NUTTER LANE
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-08-22
- Reference:
- IOE01/13074/29
- Rights:
- © Mr Richard W E Turner. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1134609
- Date first listed:
- 29-Mar-1963
- List Entry Name:
- Oakwell Hall Including Boundary Wall
- Statutory Address 1:
- OAKWELL HALL INCLUDING BOUNDARY WALL, NUTTER LANE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- OAKWELL HALL INCLUDING BOUNDARY WALL, NUTTER LANE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Kirklees (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SE 21746 27114
Details
SE 2711 2174 BATLEY MB NUTTER LANE BIRSTALL 2/40 29.3.63 Oakwell Hall including boundary wall
I
Extremely fine hall house, now museum. Probably 1583, built for John Batt, incorporating timber framed house of the mid C.15, with considerable C.17 refurbishment. Ashlar. Stone slate roof with chamfered gable copings. 2 storeys. An H-plan with central hall with 2 storey gabled porch to centre right, and gabled wing to left elevation. Windows are double chamfered and ovolo moulded, mainly with throated hood moulds some of which continue as string courses. 5 projecting chimney breasts, with ashlar stacks, to sides and rear, one to the right side being particularly broad. The central hall window is of 30 lights with king mullion and 2 transoms, and it is thought to be of C.17 date. Arched entrance to open porch to right with recut inscription I.B. 1583. 3-light window to 1st floor. The wings to left and right have 12-light mullioned and transomed windows to ground floor and 12 and 10-light similar windows to 1st floor left and right respectively. The left wing also has inward looking 12-light window with transom to ground floor and 6-light to 1st floor. Rear fenestration includes 12, 14 and 16-light mullioned and transomed windows. Lights are leaded, many with early glazing. Hall window has diamond pattern glazing.
The internal arrangement comprises through screened passage with open hall to left, beyond which is the great parlour or drawing room to front, and buttery, pantry, dairy and servants hall to rear. To right is a smaller parlour or dining room, with kitchen to rear. At 1st floor level the principal bedroom is above the great parlour.
The great hall is galleried on 2 sides with vertically symmetrical turned balusters, and with C.17 plasterwork on underside. Oak panelling to screen with 2 round arched openings with 3 pairs of Tuscan columns, thought to be C.17. Gallery is reached by open-well stairs with flat balusters and openwork dog-gates. The fireplace is thought to be C.17. The window jambs in the great parlour have plaster grotesques, possibly early C.17, in the form of lions' heads, caryatids and female figures the latter representing the Celtic goddess of fecundity. The arched fireplace in this room may be original. The passage ceiling has C.17 plasterwork in patterns of 3, 5, 6 and 8 sided figures. Plasterwork to the porch ceiling thought to be C.16.
The stone boundary wall has roll-top coping and large ball finials to opening in front of entrance, and returns to building to right.
The building was 'Fieldhead' in Charlotte Bronte's "Shirley".
Geoffrey Woledge, Oakwell Hall, 1978. N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, 1979.
Listing NGR: SE2174627114
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 340945
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Woledge, G, Oakwell Hall, (1978)
Pevsner, N, Radcliffe, E, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The West Riding, (1967)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 05-Jun-2026 at 14:18:44.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.