Heskin Hall

Details

HESKIN WOOD LANE (off) SD 51 NW 9/137 Heskin Hall 22.10.52 - I

Manor house. Dated 1670 on rainwater head, but probably earlier; altered and enlarged in C19. Thin handmade brick with blue diaper patterns, sandstone dressings, blue slate roof. L-shaped plan formed by south-facing hallrange with projecting gabled wings, and north east wing to rear; Cl9 additions in rear angle. Two storeys with attics; stepped facade presenting 5 unequal gables: tripartite right wing composed of 2½-storey gabled centre with smaller gabled 2-storey porch to left and stairturret closet wing to right; 2½-storey gabled left wing; and a gabled attic behind the parapet over the hall. The porch, up 2 semi-circular steps, has a Tudor-arched outer doorway with chamfered jambs and hoodmould, studded oak inner door, and at 1st floor a small chamfered window with a hoodmould; the stairturret part has one similar window on each floor; the principal gable of this wing, and the gable of the left wing, have C19 2-storey canted bay windows, and C17 3-light attic windows, that in the right wing with a hoodmould but now lacking mullions. The hall range, set back between the wings, has a 2-storey canted bay with 3-stage transomed and mullioned window at ground floor and similar 2-stage window above, (finished with a stone parapet), to the right of this bay a mullioned and transomed 6-light window and a 2-light window above, to the left one small chamfered window on each floor, and in the attic gable a 3-light window with a hoodmould. All the gables have stone copings; a large 2-flue chimney stack rises from the junction of the right wing and its stairturret; and a rainwater head at this junction is lettered T M. West gable end is dominated by an 1670 elaborate external chimney stack with large offsets on its left side and moulded corbelled flues at lst floor and attic levels, terminating in 3 octagonal chimneys; at ground floor this stack has 2 small arched recesses (beeboles?), and a blind doorway with 4-centred head, framed by the lowest offset; to the left of the chimney is a large 9-light mullion and transom window at ground floor, a 2-light window on each floor above (all with hoodmoulds) the right jambs of the lowest and the highest partly overlapped by the chimney stack. Breaks in the coursing at attic level suggest that the rear slope of the roof has been raised and attic window inserted. (C19 additions to the rear of less interest). Principal feature of east end is 3-storey stairturret (and its 2-storey wing to the front), which has a chamfered rear corner and gable corbelled over this, 6 triple-chamfered stairlights and 2 similar windows to the closets, all with hoodmoulds. North-east wing (perhaps later C17), 3 bays and 2½ storeys with 3 gables, has recessed transomed windows with straight drip moulds, mostly 9 lights but at ground floor of the 1st bay 3 vertical-rectangular cross-windows, and those in the gables 8 lights. Very thick west wall of this wing has an extruded octagonal stairturret with arched doorway at ground floor and corbelled gable, and 3 stacks of chimneys, but is mostly covered by additions and by creeper. Interior: principal feature of interest is drawing room in west wing which is panelled in its full height all round with Renaissance oak wainscot: fluted Ionic pilasters with architrave, inlaid frieze and shallow cornice, the bays having geometrical square panels framed by fluted pilasters with elaborate inlaid panels above and below and open fretwork cresting. Elsewhere: in the attic, remains of a long gallery (made after 1st building) with small fireplace at west end; and in rear wing at ground floor a tripartite kitchen fireplace, and on the floors above, lodgings with timber-framed partition walls, stone fireplaces (mostly blocked) and garderobe closets built into the chimney stacks, access to these lodgings by a spiral newel oak staircase in the turret. Most internal doorways and fireplaces have 4-centred heads; some altered or inserted. Otherwise altered. Reference VCH Lancs VI pp 166-169.

Listing NGR: SD5257415653

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

184391

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Farrer, W, Brownbill, J, The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, (1911), 166-169

End of official list entry

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