Hazelslack Tower

Description

Tower, probably former solar block with Hall to East now demolished. Late C14 (RCHME). Roughly-coursed rubble. 4 storeys, part demolished. Scattered fenestration, mostly loop lights to ground floor with small square windows to upper floors. West side has 2-light window with trefoiled lights in square head at 3rd floor level. Large fireplace with segmental head to ground-floor in East side with smaller fireplace above and marks of gable of former adjoining building; original doorway with 2-centred-arched head in return wall of projecting part of tower. Interior has cross-wall, various fireplaces, some with segmental heads, base of open stone stairway becoming enclosed circular stair above, garderobes to south-west angle. (Listed Building Report)

Hazelslack Tower (Plate 77), nearly 1 m. W. of Beetham Hall, was of four storeys; the walls are of rubble with ashlar dressings. The pele-tower, though now standing detached, was formerly part of a larger building which adjoined it on the E. It was built late in the 14th century and probably fell into ruin in the 17th century.
The tower is faced with coursed rubble but retains no remains of its former parapet. The windows generally are either loop-lights on the ground-floor and lighting the garde-robes or small square-headed windows lighting the upper floors. The third storey has, however, in the W. wall an original window of two trefoiled lights in a square head. On the E. wall are the marks of the gable of the adjoining building, now destroyed; it was apparently of two storeys and on the ground floor is a large fireplace (13 ft. wide) with a segmental arch of rubble; the floor above has a small fireplace with a segmental head. The return wall of the projecting part of the tower has an original doorway with chamfered jambs, two-centred arch and a draw-bar hole. Inside, the building is divided into two unequal parts by a cross-wall. The N. room on the ground floor had a barrel-vault, now fallen, and in the E. wall is a fireplace with a segmental head. The S. chamber has the base of an open stone staircase, which becomes an enclosed circular staircase at a higher level; in the S.W. angle are a series of garde-robes. The upper storeys have a number of fireplaces, mostly denuded of their dressings. (RCHME 1936)

A medieval tower house is visible as a ruined building on air photographs. The feature is extant on the latest 1991 Ordnance Survey vertical photography. Late 14th century tower, interpreted as a pele-tower or the former solar block to a now demolished hall. It is made from roughly coursed rubble and is four storeys high. (PastScape)