Details
SD 42 NE LEA AND COTTAM BLACKPOOL ROAD
10/97 Old Lea Hall Farmhouse
(formerly listed as
Old Hall Farmhouse
11.11.1966
GV I
Farmhouse, adapted from the only surviving domestic range of a
late-medieval manor house of the de Hoghton family (probably in the late
C17 or early C18); with an early C19 addition which is of less interest.
Timber frame subsequently re-clad with handmade brick, steeply-pitched
slate roof. The principal range is rectangular, c.75 x 16 feet (25 x 5
metres) on an east-west axis, containing a 5-bay timber frame, but now
partitioned to make 3 rooms with one lateral passage. It is 2-storeyed and
has an attic at the east end. The south front is of handmade brick on a
plinth of sandstone blocks. Apart from the 1st bay, which is distinguished
by a vertical facing-strip of sandstone at each side, the facade has a
moulded 5-course band with remains of a stone coping and at 1st floor a
moulded single-course band between the windows at about mid-point of those
which are blocked (? transom level); and over the whole an embattled
wallplate (moulded in the 1st bay) and half-timbered coved eaves over which
the roof is swept. The openings, formerly regular with 10 on each floor (2
to each structural bay), are vertical rectangular, those at ground floor
segmental-headed (giving an impression of an arcade), but some have been
blocked or altered, leaving five 12-pane boxed sashed windows at ground
floor and 6 above, mostly irregularly disposed, with simple board doors now
in the 3rd and 8th ground floor openings. The left return wall, now 2
gables with the additon, is rendered; the right gable has 2 attic windows;
and there are chimneys at both gables and another on the ridge of the 4th
bay. The interior timber frame has survived largely intact, although some
elements are concealed by later walling or inserted ceilings. It is a
5-bay post-and-truss frame spanning about 16 feet, the 1st frame at the
west gable wall, and the bays each slightly less than 16 feet long, with
intermediate posts at the mid-point of each bay. The 5th bay has been
shortened, a former cross frame at the east end removed. The wall posts
rise from plinth level, support ceiling beams c.9 feet above ground level,
and terminate c,10i feet above the level of the 1st floor, carrying
deeply-cambered tie-beams. The ground floor has 2 longitudinal sets of
principal joists (no other joists visible). The posts and beams, which are
about one foot wide, and the joists which are only slightly smaller, are
decorated with deeply-undercut triple roll moulding, the outer rolls
tongue-stopped and the middle one carried over from posts to beams on the
soffits of concave braces. These details differ in the 4th and 5th bays,
where 3 of the 4 beams have hollow moulding between the rolls, and the last
2 are supported at their north ends by moulded stone corbels. Blocked
mortices in the post and beam of the 3rd cross frame indicate that this was
originally closed. The kingpost roof trusses have angle struts and concave
longitudinal braces to the ridge, and the principal rafters carry 2 pairs
of trenched chamfered purlins; carpenters'marks number the trusses from
east to west in series beginning "II", indicating that there was originally
one other at the east end. The arch-braced and cambered tie beams, with
moulded decoration on the sides, are visible at 1st floor of the west bay,
the others only in the roof space above a relatively modern inserted
ceiling, but the decoration suggests that all roof trusses may formerly
have been open to the 1st floor. History: the Hoghton family, acquiring
the manor of Lea by marriage in the early C14, enlarging this estate by
further acquisitions in the C14 and C15, apparently regarded Lea as their
principal residence until Hoghton tower (Hoghton CP, Chorley District) was
built in the later C16. Accounts of a feud in 1589, when Thomas Hoghton
was killed in a "great affray" here, refer to "the outer court of the manor
house". The function of this surviving building is not known. Reference
VCH Lancs VI pp 129-131.
Listing NGR: SD4822929822
