Killington Hall

Description

Early 15th century tower of the Pickerings with domestic buildings of circa 1640. Originally surrounded by a moat. Hall altered circa 1640 when a crosswing was demolished. Altered 1803. Site of domestic chapel. (PastScape–ref. Perriam and Robinson)

C15 with alterations and additions of 1640 and 1803. Stone rubble with ashlar dressings and slate roof. Peel tower to south end is in ruin. ower partially collapsed. Interior of tower has no floor or roof. Small inserted outhouse, blocked fireplace and corbells to north side. (Listed Building Report)

Killington Hall (Plate 117), N.W. of the church, is of two storeys with attics; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. It belonged in the later Middle Ages to the family of Pickering. The house was built in the 15th century, probably on the normal plan of a hall-block and cross-wings at the ends. The S. cross-wing survives in a ruined state but the hallblock was much altered and heightened in 1640. The N. cross-wing no longer exists. Further alterations were made to the house in 1803. The E. front of the main block has a projecting bay towards the S. end; both this and the bay containing the entrance are carried up as gabled dormers. The upper windows are of c. 1640 and of two, three and four square-headed lights with stone mullions and labels; the lower windows have been altered; above one of them is a panel with the initials T.K. for Thomas Kitson and a shield of his arms. In the gable of the N. dormer is a panel with the initials and date T.K., L.K. 1640, also the further initials R.I. and two fleurs-de-lis. The back wall retains some plain stone windows of 1640 and part of the head of a 15th-century window, otherwise destroyed. The ruined S. wing is of two storeys and was finished with an embattled parapet, of which small portions still remain. Both storeys on the E. side have an original 15th-century window of four and three trefoiled lights respectively, in a square head. There are remains of two similar windows on the S. side of the ground storey; the other windows are plain square-headed openings. The S. wall of the house forms the N. wall of the wing and has traces of the earlier and lower roof of the hall-block. On the gable is a chimney-stack with cylindrical shafts of c. 1640. There are traces of a projection on the W. wall which may represent a former garde-robe tower. In the ground-floor room is an original fireplace with chamfered jambs and lintel. Four shaped corbels in the upper storey presumably supported the wall-posts of the roof. Inside the house, some of the ceiling-beams are exposed. There is some 17th-century panelling on both floors.
Condition—Of house, fairly good; of S. wing, ruined and ivy-grown. (RCHME 1936)