| Description | Hall house of 15th century date (in 1981 its timber frame was dated by a dendrochronology sample to 1478). Built for the Amyas family. The hall was floored and a central stack inserted c.1700. Encased in stone during the 18th century and later in several stages. The house is clad mainly in brick, part rendered, and the front wall partly in deeply coursed stone. Stone slate roof. Two storeys. It is a two bay open Hall, with a one bay solar with chamber beneath. The 3 bay front has two entrances and features 19th and 20th century windows (not of special interest). The rendered ridge stack is located between bays 1 and 2.
Interior: the open hall of two bays is now floored and divided by the inserted brick stack. The solar bay is to the right (west) and features its original floor with provision for a semicircular stair to the rear right. There are king post trusses on posts (front post to truss No. 2 is missing) and two intermediate open, moulded and arched braced collared trusses in the hall. The two purlin roof features exceptionally fine and rare cusped windbracing. An additional tie beam to the left of truss 3 formerly supported the top of a coved dais canopy and, along with the tie beam to truss 2, is brattished and decoratively carved with roses and shields bearing the Amyas coat of arms. The rear post to truss 2 (south side) is also richly moulded. Studding extant in trusses 3 and 4 at 1st floor level but it is thought that the right wall (truss 4) and the rear wall were originally of stone at lower level. A 18th century plaster ceiling cornice and corner cupboard is retained in the ground floor left room. The house terminates at the left end with a spere truss; formerly there was a cross passage and a further wing to the left (east) which were demolished in 1938. The structure represents a very complete survival of a 15th century gentry house, the spere truss and cusped windbracing being the only examples yet identified in Yorkshire. (Selected sources: D. J. H. Michelmore and J. Sugden. 1980. 'Horbury Hall, West Yorkshire' Archaeological Journal 137, p.403 6; C. Giles (RCHME) 1986. ‘Rural Houses of West Yorkshire 1400 1830’; K. Taylor. 1975. ‘Wakefield District Heritage’. Wakefield EAHY Committee)
(Text edited from English Heritage’s National Heritage List’
In 1987 Horbury Hall underwent a programme of restoration, and provided an opportunity to excavate the floor area of the surviving hall. Excavations by S. Moorhouse against the north wall of the hall revealed a succession of buildings. The earliest occupation was represented by a free standing sandstone slab, tightly packed into a post hole and with half its length protruding above contemporary ground surface. Associated pottery was of 12th century date and its purpose was deemed as possibly a boundary marker to the medieval chapel of Horbury which lay to the north of the building. At least four structural phases were found. The first three were substantial timber slots, with evidence for interrupted sill construction. All lay on a different alignment to the later halls, and suggest a re planning of the site in the 15th century. The demolished wall of the earlier stone built hall, contemporary with the demolished wing was located confirming the alignment recorded previously in what is now the kitchen. Timber stains for the joists of the raised dais of the latest and surviving hall were also found. Two sets of post holes were encountered within the building, parallel with the surviving hall wall, and cut into the levelled foundations of the first stone hall wall. Both were interpreted as scaffolding, one set possibly for the walls and the other for the roof. |