Kilnsey Old Hall

Details

SD 9767 CONISTONE WITH KILNSEY MASTILES LANE
(north side)
Kilnsey

23/70 Kilnsey Old Hall

10.9.54

GV II*

House. Now farm outbuilding. 1648, for Christopher Wade, altered to farm
use probably c1800 when it was reroofed. Limestone rubble with gritstone
dressings; graduated stone slate roof. L-shape plan built on a steep slope;
the main range of 4 bays facing northeast; of 3 storeys with attics, but
now unfloored at the downhill end and reducing to 2 storeys with attics,
at the other. A rear 3-storey, 1-bay wing projects behind bay 4. Quoins.
North-east façade, bay 1: a board byre door with chamfered quoined jambs
and lintel; bay 2: cart entrance with keyed segmental arch (the quoined
jambs changing to indicate a raised archway), and a very weathered carved
stone above the keystone. Bay 4, at a higher ground floor level: doorway
with hollow, fillet and quarter round moulding to quoined jambs, the lintel
with 3-centred arch having 2 recessed plaques with raised lettering :
"1648 C W". Between the date and initials is carved a vertical sword with
quillons and simple knuckle bow. A flight of external stone steps, to left
of this doorway, rise to a board door in chamfered quoined surround.
Fenestration, first-floor: bay 1, a chamfered window with socket for a
missing vertical glazing bar; bay 3, a fine 6-light recessed chamfered
mullion window with king mullion and hood mould. Second floor: blocked
recessed chamfered mullion windows of 2, 2, 3 and 2 lights. Eaves raised
or rebuilt. Moulded kneeler with base of vase finial and gable coping to
left, hipped roof right. Left return: this gable was the principal facade
of the original building. Chamfered plinth; ground floor: two 2-light
recessed chamfered mullion windows, mullions missing. First floor: central
6-light similar window with king mullion and hood mould; second floor:
similar, of 4 lights with hood mould and small chamfered windows to right:
3rd floor (attic storey): a 2-light window. Moulded gable coping and
kneelers with moulded square vase finials. Rear (south) facade of main
range: chamfered plinth to right; central inserted door with chamfered
quoins to left jamb. Recessed and chamfered mullioned windows throughout
of 2 and 1 light to first floor and of 3 and 3 lights to second floor, all
blocked. External stacks left ( in angle of rear wing) and right of
centre; the tops truncated and roofed over. Rear wing: 3-light windows to
ground and first floors, above,2 single-light windows, that to right
blocked. Projecting external stack with corniced ashlar flue to left
gable. Moulded kneelers and gable coping. Interior: C17 plasterwork and
fireplaces remain at first and second floor levels on the rear wall of the
main range: from left to right- a scrolled frieze, apparently a window
surround and below the original ceiling; a fireplace with moulding similar
to the original doorway and an overmantle with ? fleurs de lis, and remains
of a date with the letters "16" and "E W" or "T W". Above this fireplace
there is another to the second floor, blocked, with quoined jambs. To
right a vertical scar of a demolished partition wall, and to right again a
fine arched fireplace with voussoirs at first-floor level is blocked and
partly concealed by an inserted rubble cross wall. Further plasterwork
remains on the inner face of the wall with the cart arch: a frieze with
rose, acorn and vine leaf motifs in high relief to left of the original
cross wall line; to right there is a series of panels with ? tree of life,
vine scrolls, winged motif with lozenge and pomegranate; further plain
plaster to second floor, flanking the blocked windows. The rear wing is
entered through the 1648 doorway; the room to right of the main range is
plastered, has recessed joists with stepped run-out chamfer stops and C20
cattle stalls. The rear wing is floored; rounded corbels support a long
spine beam which has stepped run-out stops. The fireplaces in the gable
(ground and first floors) have deeply chamfered large quoins and single-
block lintels cut to a slightly cambered arch. The roof structure overall
is of iron bolted queen post trusses, elaborately constructed to carry the
roof around the hipped main range to wing junction. History: the site
belonged to Fountains Abbey and was an important grange and collecting
point for the sheep sheared on Malham Moor. In the mid C16 the estate was
bought by the Yorke family who in turn sold it to Christopher Wade. His
initials on the door lintel suggest that he was responsible for the present
building. His son, Cuthbert was a Captain of Royalist forces during the
Civil War and was fined, but the estate appears to have survived. The Wade
family remained until 1693 but the house was probably tenanted by 1745 by
which time the estate was heavily mortgaged and the first edition of
Whitaker's "Craven" (1805) described the building as "entirely dismantled
is now used for agricultural purposes, and is fast becoming a ruin",
Yorkshire Buildings Study Group, Report No 823, 1982. T.D. Whitaker,
The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, 1805 Reprinted
1973, p530


Listing NGR: SD9732467845

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

324657

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Whitaker, T D, The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven, (1805), 530
Yorkshire Buildings Study Group Report in Yorkshire Buildings Study Group Report, Vol. 823, (1982)

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