Well Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Well.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of North Yorkshire.
1974 county of North Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire North Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE26758201
Latitude 54.23311° Longitude -1.59111°

Well Hall has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

House. Early C14, C17 and c18. Rubblestone and ashlar, rendered with graduated stone slate roof. Plan: to left, original C14 hall house with vaulted undercroft, of 3 storeys, 2 bays by 3 bays; set back to right C18 three-storey, 4-bay wing. Quoins. To left-hand bay of C18 wing a 6-panel door with 2 top panels glazed. Bay to right and to far right have tripartite sashes with central 4-pane sashes. Above to these bays are sashes with glazing bars and above again are 6-pane sashes. Bay above door and to left of right bay have blind openings to each floor. 2 ridge stacks and end stack to right. Medieval house has two 16-pane 2-light side-sliding sashes to ground floor. First floor has 2 tall sashes with glazing bars and Gothick pointed-arched heads set in original C14 pointed-arched openings with continuous hoodmould. Second floor: central side-sliding sash with glazing bars. Hipped roof, side wall stack. Rear: medieval hall has deep moulded first-floor string course. To side is a thin blind chamfered rectangular opening to rear staircase. Interior: C18 wing has early C18 dogleg staircase with thick turned balusters, up to attic storey, probably reset. Medieval wing has 3-bay vaulted undercroft with chamfered ribs supported on round piers with octagonal capitals and moulded corbels. Moulded 4-centred arched fireplace to north. To east end is a tunnel between end wall and outside wall. This supports a staircase above, possibly original to the building. On the first floor C18 rooms were inserted where the large hall was. In the third storey can be seen the heads of the two C13 windows. On the wall of the right return can be seen a blocked C13 window similar to the other two but complete with its central mullion and tracery in the head of the window. The roof trusses to this part are C17. The hall probably dates from 1342, when a Hospital of St Richard was founded at Well. It was probably housed in the building until the present almshouses were built in 1758. (Listed Building Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1150773
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 52254.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY14578.

Books
- Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p. 27
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Clarke, A., 06/1998. Archaeological Watching Brief and Excavations at Well Hall, Well, Near Bedale

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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