Description

NY 31 NW ST JOHNS CASTLERIGG & WYTHBURN THIRLSPOT

17/104 Dalehead Hall and
Dalehead Cottage

II

Formerly one house, now divided into cottage and residential meeting centre for
Manchester City Corporation. Late C16, partly rebuilt 1623, with late C17 and
early C19 extensions. Thick painted roughcast walls on massive battered
plinth. Graduated greenslate roof with large square and round stone chimney
stacks. Rear of house has incised stucco walls with patterned cast gutters. 2
storeys, 4 bays with 3-storey single-bay projection to right. Rear 2-storey,
5-bay C19 facade with projecting bay to right. Formerly of single span with
late C17 stair projection to left rear; increased to double span in C19, filling
the angle of the original L-shape. C18 panelled door in wooden surround within
plain opening. 2 late C17 ground-floor cross-mullioned windows; one further
wooden facsimile cross-mullioned window and C20 casement to right, all in plain
reveals. Upper-floor fixed-casement windows with glazing bars in enlarged plain
reveals. C19 lean-to extension to left has side plank door, covering a blocked
doorway with wooden lintel inscribed R.L. (probably Richard Leathes born 1625).
Contemporary extension to right has small original openings. Side wall right
has early C20 doorway and windows. Rear has top-glazed panelled door under
patterned fanlight in painted stone surround with pediment, all within C20
wooden-framed porch. Sash windows in painted stone surrounds. Interior has C17
plank and C18 panelled doors throughout. Semicircular original staircase with
C20 wooden steps. Central chimney stack has 2 inglenooks in ground-floor rooms
of cottage. Beamed ceilings. Upper-floor bedroom has C17 fireside door which
has probably been the doorway to a cradle cupboard. Hall has late C17 oak
staircase with barley-twist balusters and heavy moulded handrail. Upper-floor
room has cupboard in what was originally the rear wall of the hall, which
contains a small 3-light wooden-mullioned early C17 window with diamond leaded
panes, in its original position. Dalehead was purchased by the Laythes family
(later Leathes) in 1577. A stained glass window inscribed CHRISTOPHERUS LAYTHES
HOC DOM AEDIF A.D. 1623 has been removed. Sold in 1879 by George
Stanger-Leathes with Thirlmere, to Manchester Corporation, so that Thirlmere
could be made into a reservoir. See Transactions Cumberland & Westmorland
Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, new series, 1x, pp109-119; R.W. Brunskill,
Dalehead Hall, Thirlmere, Cumbria, An architectural report and commentary, 1980.

Listing NGR: NY3137517500

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26437520

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)