RUFFORD OLD HALL

RUFFORD OLD HALL, LIVERPOOL ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1374141
Date first listed:: 11-Oct-1968
List Entry Name:: RUFFORD OLD HALL
Statutory Address:: RUFFORD OLD HALL, LIVERPOOL ROAD

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1374141
Date first listed:: 11-Oct-1968
List Entry Name:: RUFFORD OLD HALL
Statutory Address 1:: RUFFORD OLD HALL, LIVERPOOL ROAD

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: RUFFORD OLD HALL, LIVERPOOL ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Lancashire
District:: West Lancashire (District Authority)
Parish:: Rufford
National Grid Reference:: SD 46318 16004

Details

RUFFORD LIVERPOOL ROAD SD 41 NE 7/11 Rufford Old Hall 11.10.1968 GV I

Manor house of the Hesketh family of Martholme and Rufford, now National Trust property. Late C15 hall (restored), with wing dated 1662 at 1st floor; addition to this dated 1821 on rainwater heads. Timber-framed hall with external stone chimney, wing of handmade brick with stone quoins, all with stone plinth and stone slate roofs. Probably originally H-plan but west wing removed and east wing rebuilt 1662 and 1821. Box-framed open hall of 7 bays, with screens passage at east end, semi-octagonal oriel at west end of north side, the north front decorated with closely-set studs below the rail, quatrefoil panels and windows above it, coved eaves; 4-centred arched doorway with carved spandrels; oriel almost fully glazed with wooden mullion and transom windows; restored lantern on roof (probably in place of former smoke louvre); west end has 2 doorways (originally to west wing); south side of posts and studs, has large stone chimney stack, three large 8-light wooden mullion and transom windows. At east end between hall and wing are C19 gabled bays in style matching the hall. East wing of 1662 extends northwards, is single depth, 5 bays, 2½ storeys (different brickwork above 1st floor), almost symmetrical; has a doorway offset slightly right of centre, 4 windows at ground floor, 5 at 1st floor, and 4 large gabled dormers, all these windows with segmental relieving arches over them, all with diamond lattice glazing, and all crosswindows except those in the dormers, which are 2-light casements; between the 2nd and 3rd windows at 1st floor is a plaque carved with the Hesketh double-headed eagle, a label above it and the date 1662 below it. Rear of this wing has inter alia a square 4-stage embattled stair tower with a doorway at ground floor and a 3-light mullioned window with a label on each floor above, coupled with an embattled chimney stack; 1821 addition to the south in matching style and materials; added service wing at north end. Interior of hall, with 5 hammerbeam roof trusses, spere truss, 5 service doorways, and a free-standing carved oak screen, is "of an exuberance of decoration matched nowhere else in England" (Pevsner): for details see "References" (below). Interior of wing has a large segmental-arched stone fireplace, stopped 1/4-round moulded beams on both floors, cross-corner fireplace at 1st floor. References: VCH Lancs VI pp. 123-126; Pevsner; P. Fleetwood-Hesketh Rufford Old Hall (National Trust, reprinted 1985); and Rev. W.G. Procter "The Manor of Rufford and the Ancient Family of the Heskeths" Hist.Soc.Lancs. and Cheshire, 23, 1907, pp. 91-118.

Listing NGR: SD4631816004

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 357713
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Farrer, W, Brownbill, J, The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, (1906), 123-126
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Lancashire, (1969)
'Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire' in Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, , Vol. 23, (1907), 93-118

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.