Description

SJ 86 NE
5/11

GAWSWORTH C.P.
(Off) CHURCH LANE
Gawsworth Old Hall

25.7.52

GV I

Country house. C15 and C16 with C19 and C20 additions and alterations. Timber framed with white-washed wattle and daub and brick infill and English garden wall bond red brick with stone slate roof. Two and three storeys, originally forming a quadrangular plan now reduced by approximately half to form three-sided courtyard.
Courtyard front: doorway to right of centre with 4-centered arch and oriel window to first floor with coving below and gable above with decorated bargeboards. Six bays of chevron strutting to either side with quatrefoil panels above and coving to eaves. Three-light ground and first floor casement windows to centre bays of either side and
further three-light casement to ground floor left joining with 3-light window at right angles to it to form the corner. Projecting wings at right and left, that to left having further projection in re-entrant angle with C20 cladding simulating timber framing with chevron strutting. Gable end similar having central chimney stack with square clock face board and circular face. Decorated bargeboards to gable end. Walls of small framing to left-hand wing of 4 x 15 cells with C19 semi-octagonal bay window with brick base and panelled parapet. Wing at right of 3 storeys raised above brick basement which has ashlar window surrounds. Close studding to ground floor and continuous band of mullioned and transomed windows including semi-octagonal bay at left of centre.
First floor: slightly jettied with moulded bressumer. Lower room of decorated cells with continuous mullioned and transomed fenestration. Semi-octagonal bay rises to third storey with row of decorated cells below mullioned and transomed window. C18 and C19 brick walling to gable end with C20 fenestration.
Entrance front: simulated close studding to both floors with middle rails and C18 sash fenestration. Stone chimney breast at left with moulded brick stack and brick chimney breast at right painted white with brick stack and bearing re-set rectangular stone with the arms of Sir Edward Fitton and the date 1570. Door between two chimney breasts having a C20 moulded doorcase with broken segmental pediment.
Interior: Library: ceiling beams introduced in C19. C19 fireplace containing some C16 or C17 marquetry panels to overmantel.
Long Hall: Series of longitudinal ceiling beams. Altered fireplace with reset strapwork panel to overmantel. Staircase altered in 1920 incorporating newels of an earlier staircase. Chapel of 1701 has ceiling and wainscot panelling of raised and fielded profile.
Dining room: chamfered ceiling beams with angle braces. C20 fireplace with imposed timber mantel shelf.
Drawing room: small framing to walls with ovolo-moulded end-stopped ceiling beams and ovolo-moulded window frames, mullions and transomes, the hearth being originally larger judging from the end stopping of the ceiling beams. Present fireplace of C20 date with C17 overmantel. Small framing evident in several other ground floor rooms including inglenook fireplace with bressumer to Green Room with diminished hearth. First floor: Gallery has queen post truss. The solar has truss with cambered tie beam, arched braces and angled struts.
Billiard room: arched braces supporting principals.

Listing NGR: SJ8916269641

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Gawsworth Old Hall at Wikipedia
• Gawsworth Old Hall official website
• Wikidata Q5528494

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)