Heversham Hall

Description

Heversham Hall (Plate 71), 260 yards S.W. of the church, is of two storeys. The walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. The main block appears to have been built late in the 14th century, but the upper storey was probably re-built in the 16th century. There are modern additions on the S., E. and W. The N. front has an original doorway with chamfered jambs and two-centred head; flanking it are two original windows each of two trefoiled and transomed lights; the upper storey has a range of two light square-headed windows of the 16th century. There are two original windows and one 16th-century window on the S. front all similar to those described above. In the E. wall is a window of two trefoiled lights. The original windows are rebated internally for shutters. Inside the building is a little 17th-century panelling and some exposed ceiling-beams. The 16th-century W. fireplace has a segmental stone arch. There is a panelled door of c. 1600. A few feet E. of the house is the ruined wall of a destroyed two-storey building.
Condition—Good. (RCHME 1936)

Heversham Hall stands in the village not far from the church. The habitable portion is in good condition, and is used as the residence of the farm: its appearance indicates the date as being the latter end of the fifteenth century. Adjoining to the residence are some fragments of walling of a much more ancient structure, pertaining apparently to a tower, but so scanty and decayed, as to afford no certain architectural data as to its plan or age. It is a remnant probably of the tower of one of the Windsores.
The present hall is a single house of two stories with a long frontage facing an open courtyard: a considerable portion of tile range to the right of the entrance being occupied by a dining hall, which measures 30 feet by 27 feet. This apartment is entered directly at the centre of the block by a pointed arched doorway in dressed stone with a plain splay on the arris; a similar door leads out from the far end of the hall: there is a small parlour beyond. The windows are of the Tudor period, four in number, two on each side, square-headed, but divided by a mullion into two lights, with pointed heads trefoiled and feathered, and with transoms also. The roof of the room is flat, and was no doubt, as was usual at that period, panelled in wood, but has been replaced by modern plastered ceiling. The upper floors are lighted with plain mullioned windows, and present nothing peculiar. The oak staircase in small flights, with spindly turned balusters is of the late Renaissance period.
Belonging to the hall, and still in situ, there is a characteristic dining table of late Elizabethan work with a massive frame and foot rail, on six baluster turned legs. The top is loose in one piece of solid oak, six inches thick, measuring 13 feet 8 inches, by 2 feet 10 inches.
The walls in this house are of great thickness and solidity, some of them inside being six feet thick. (Taylor 1892)

Comments

Just east of Hall of circa 1540 is a scrap of wall two storeys high, supposedly the remains of a Pele Tower of 1384.
Most of the hall is quite domestic in character and the rather ruinous solar tower doesn't really change the character of the house.