Rufford Old Hall.

On our visit to 'Holderness' at Fettlers Wharf we had an afternoon at Rufford Old Hall. There is a privately owned Rufford New Hall just down the road.

Ruuford Old Hasll is now owned by the National Trust and as it was the first weekend of re-opening the property this year it was surprisingly busy. The original parts of the building is Grade I listed and the rest Grade II and the house belonged to the Hesketh family until 1936 when it was donated to The Trust by the 1st Baron Hesketh. The Hesketh family had moved into the 'New Hall' in 1798.

This is the original great hall of the original buildings, built about 1530. There were wings to the left and right of the timber framed building and the lantern was added in the 19th centuary but it is still a great building. The land is low lying and was on the edge of a mere. Luckily when they built the hall they did so on stone footings otherwise the building would have rotted away and be long gone.

The brick built wing to the left on the first photo was a wing that was built in 1662 and the family crest adorns each wall, along with the date. They are made of 2" bricks as have other local buildings.

I'm not sure whether the front has been altered or not, but the sort of symmetrical look of the front could be Georgian other that the fact that it isn't really and the round heads on the windows. It is a point of interest that William Shakespeare may have stayed in the Old Great Hall for a while, and maybe even performed a play here before heading down to London and to make his name.

The Great hall has a hammerbeam roof with five bays. At the end of each there is a wooden carved angle, most of which have lost their wings. It is thought that these are not original but may well have been obtained during the Reformation of Henry VIII when the churches and abbeys etc were stripped of items and sold off for the Crown. The fire place and chimney is unusual for the time as they were still using a hole in the roof to allow the smoke to escape. Also note the stone flagged floor.

One of the main features in the rome is the 'moveable screen'. It may officially be called 'moveable' but I don't think it would be possible with damage it must weigh a tonne. It is elaborately carved and probably of very hard bog oak. There are three 'errors' in the carving and these are thought to be deliberate as it was felt that only God could create perfection so errors prevented the carvers from committing heresy. It is positioned to block the view and/or draughts that might come from the north wing which was originally the kitchen and servants wing.

The view of the Great Hall also shows some of the topiary in the garden depicting a squirrel. The lantern was added later to bring more light into the hall. Recent work on the wattle and daub walls found that at some stage they had been infilled with brick and rubble. This meant the the building wasn't able to breathe natural and was causing structural damage. It was removed and replaced with the real thing at the same time some of the timbers were replaced.

Whilst not at their best at this time of year and not being extensive, the gardens are worth a walk. This avenue of trees lead to the old church yard. I'm not sure if there is a gate to allow you access to the road on which the marinas sit but that is where it leads.

The courtyard and barns had been adapted to toilets, shops etc but made a nice setting.  The wing with the castellated towers was added in the 1820's

There were plenty of snowdrops out and I was attracted to the yellow plants that sat strangely amongst them.

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On closer inspection they are also snowdrops but I wasn't sure whether there was a problem with them as this bunch was part green and part yellow. However there are over 2500 types of snowdrop so you never know.

Away from the canal, towards the road, there were many snowdrops that always bring a bit of cheer, even when there is snow on the ground. A load of yellow aconites scattered among them would look even better.

We walked back to the boat via a post box and I returned to my task of fettling the bathroom on the boat before heading home the next day. I'm already looking forward to our next visit.