The Baronial Hall

The interior door on the left of the entrance porch was formerly the old entrance to the earlier portions of the house. The walls here are very thick as may be seen by the depth of the oak mullioned window which formerly overlooked this doorway. It was discovered in 1910 by the then owner Mr Booth-Jones, who also found the hive-shaped oven behind the fireplace of the ancient bake house to which the above mentioned door gives access. In spite of additions and alterations the house which contains about 15 rooms is a very fine example of a mediaeval manor.

The ancient carving to be seen above the fireplace in the Baronial Hall is a symbol of Christianity. The fish urn with wheat symbolises that the Blessed Sacrament (Holy Communion) was kept at the house. The face is said to be that of St Peter. Two harpoons of the kind used for spearing fish represents the Apostolic Commission “Go ye into all nations and be ye fishers of men”

There are traces of a pulpit on the staircase in the room which is probably Elizabethan. On the floor above the Baronial Hall is a long room with roof timbers left open. The rough and heavy beams are supported by equally rough arched trusses (i.e. round arches formed by two curved planks). These trusses were later adapted to support a round ceiling which has been removed. On one of these trusses there is a carved mask of a man’s face. The windows are very low with the sills almost level with the floor. They are broad with original stone mullions and two old fireplaces.

This probably means that the room was once divided into two. This room does not take up all of the space above the Baronial Hall, for at the North West end a small room is divided off by a wattle and daub wall which is one of the oldest items in the whole house and must be a relic of the earlier house.

On the plaster of the wattle and daub wall are some wall paintings which have been covered by whitewash and were discovered in 1910. In these paintings may be seen amidst a good deal of floral decoration of a conventional kind the remains of tow round pictures each three or four feet in diameter, One shows outlined against a dull red background the figure of a man with an oval face, long drooping moustache and a forked beard, he is wearing a flat cap, a doublet cut square at the neck with slashed sleeves and a full skirt. The picture is silhouetted and the details are marked with dark lines, his right hand is on his breast, his left hand is raised with the forefinger pointing upwards. Round the picture is the inscription in large letters “The word of God is life to the Soule”. The other picture has largely disappeared with all the upper half gone but from what remains, it seems clear that it was another figure similar in kind and costume.

The inscription round this picture is lost except for the fragments “or self” at the bottom. It is difficult to determine the exact date of the pictures, as the pictures contain a mixture of the fashions of two generations. An explanation would be the artist working about 1560 or a little later intended to portray a man in costume of thirty or forty years earlier. Unfortunately we know very little of the period before 1549, although it was mentioned by John Leyland in his district itinerary.