Description

SE 2711 2174 BATLEY MB NUTTER LANE
BIRSTALL
2/40
29.3.63 Oakwell Hall including
boundary wall

I

Extremely fine hall house, now museum. Probably 1583, built for
John Batt, incorporating timber framed house of the mid C.15, with
considerable C.17 refurbishment. Ashlar. Stone slate roof with
chamfered gable copings. 2 storeys. An H-plan with central hall
with 2 storey gabled porch to centre right, and gabled wing to left
elevation. Windows are double chamfered and ovolo moulded, mainly
with throated hood moulds some of which continue as string courses.
5 projecting chimney breasts, with ashlar stacks, to sides and rear,
one to the right side being particularly broad. The central hall
window is of 30 lights with king mullion and 2 transoms, and it is
thought to be of C.17 date. Arched entrance to open porch to right
with recut inscription I.B. 1583. 3-light window to 1st floor.
The wings to left and right have 12-light mullioned and transomed
windows to ground floor and 12 and 10-light similar windows to 1st
floor left and right respectively. The left wing also has inward
looking 12-light window with transom to ground floor and 6-light to
1st floor. Rear fenestration includes 12, 14 and 16-light mullioned
and transomed windows. Lights are leaded, many with early glazing.
Hall window has diamond pattern glazing.

The internal arrangement comprises through screened passage with open
hall to left, beyond which is the great parlour or drawing room to
front, and buttery, pantry, dairy and servants hall to rear. To
right is a smaller parlour or dining room, with kitchen to rear.
At 1st floor level the principal bedroom is above the great parlour.

The great hall is galleried on 2 sides with vertically symmetrical
turned balusters, and with C.17 plasterwork on underside. Oak
panelling to screen with 2 round arched openings with 3 pairs of
Tuscan columns, thought to be C.17. Gallery is reached by open-well
stairs with flat balusters and openwork dog-gates. The fireplace is
thought to be C.17. The window jambs in the great parlour have
plaster grotesques, possibly early C.17, in the form of lions' heads,
caryatids and female figures the latter representing the Celtic goddess
of fecundity. The arched fireplace in this room may be original.
The passage ceiling has C.17 plasterwork in patterns of 3, 5, 6 and
8 sided figures. Plasterwork to the porch ceiling thought to be C.16.

The stone boundary wall has roll-top coping and large ball finials to
opening in front of entrance, and returns to building to right.

The building was 'Fieldhead' in Charlotte Bronte's "Shirley".

Geoffrey Woledge, Oakwell Hall, 1978. N. Pevsner, The Buildings of
England, 1979.

Listing NGR: SE2174627114

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Oakwell Hall at Wikipedia
• Oakwell Hall official website
• Wikidata Q7074269

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey