Description

SE 95 NE
1470/9/11
20-SEP-1966

GARTON
ELMSWELL LANE
(South, off), Elmswell
Elmswell Old Hall

II*

House. 1634 for Henry Best with late C18 rebuilding to left side of front facade and later additions and alterations including C19 range to front. Reddish-pink brick with pantile roof 2 storeys, 4 first-floor windows, the left side is recessed and to right a single-storey, single-bay range. Off-centre entrance a board door with overlight with vertical glazing bars. Above an ashlar female head. Further entrance to right a board door. To left side are two 16-pane sashes under flat arches of rubbed brick. To right 2 lights of a mullion window within double-hollow-chamfered surround and with rubbed brick mullions, interrupted by later range. Remains of rubbed brick band to right side. First floor has three 16-pane sashes under flat arches of rubbed brick to left side, and to right a casement window under segmental arch. 2 ashlar date plaques, now eroded inserted in range to front. Stepped caves to left. Brick copings to gable ends. 3 rear stacks, that to left has rubbed brick cornice. Gable ends: plinth. To ground and fast floor to left and to fist floor to right a 5-light mullion window now blocked, with rubbed brick mullions and in double hollow-chamfered surrounds, partly obscured by cement. To right, ground floor a tall 3-light Yorkshire sash. 3-course first- and 2-course second-floor bands. To left a casement window to gable and to right remains of a pitching door. Interior. C17 panelling to some rooms. Elmswell Old Hall, whilst disused and dilapidated at present, is of outstanding significance for its historical associations with Henry Best, its builder. It can clearly he identified with the house in which he wrote his Farming and Memorandum Books relating to the full range of farming and social activities in the region. The
house formed the heart of a farming estate, the minutiae and dynamics of which are set out in remarkable detail in the books and they provide a nationally-important archive of information for historians of all aspects of post-medieval rural life. D Woodward, ed, The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell 1642, 1984, illus. Pevsner N, Yorkshire, York and The East Riding, 1978, p 305. Bibliography 3696: The Famiing and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell 1642, 1984. 3698 The Buildings of England, Yorkshire York and the East Riding (Nikolaus Pevsner and John Hutchingson), 1972, Page(s) 305.

Listing NGR: SE9979658140

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554539

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version