Nether Hall in Westmoreland

Description

Nether Hall was the 15th century home of the Harrington family, the earliest walls being 5 feet thick and probably the remains of a pele tower. Rebuilt in the 16th century with a 17th century north wing. Developed in the 18th century into a farmhouse. (PastScape)

Nether Hall, 800 yards E.N.E. of the church, was built probably early in the 16th century. The N. wing is a 17th-century addition. The house retains some 16th and 17th-century windows, the latter with solid frames. Inside the building, the original block has an open timbered ceiling of heavy beams. In the thickness of the N. wall is a stone staircase with a garde-robe at the top. There are some 17th-century doors. The original roof of the main block is of three bays, with king-post trusses against the end walls; the intermediate trusses have tie-beams and collars with curved braces below and king-posts above. The N. wing has a crutch-truss of late character. (RCHME 1936)

Comments

Gatehouse has difficulty in understanding the attribution of this hall to the Harrington Family. It seems, in fact, to be a cruck built farmhouse presumably tenanted from the Harrington's (who's residence was Witherslack Hall). The evidence for a 'tower' is a thick wall containing an intramural stair leading to a latrine. This wall may well be thick to contain the stair, rather than to support upper levels. The walls were erected around the cruck frame. The social status of this building seems more that of a pele-house type bastle but as this was not a chamber above byre this is not really such a building.