| Summary : The site of the late 15th/early 16th century Clifton Hall Tower; the only surviving part of a medieval house. The tower measures approximately 10 metres by 8 metres, and is on three floors. It would have been a later addition to the manor house which was demolished by 1819 to make way for the present Hall Farm. The first floor of the tower had a main room with a large fireplace, window, and garderobe chamber; it was also the access level to the rest of the building. The ground floor was self-contained with a door in the north wall. The original roof does not survive, although much material has been reused in the present roof. The tower replaced the west cross wing and was extended to the south, but this extension was demolished in the late 16th/early 17th century and replaced by the new, larger hall. The house was extended again during the 18th century, but the hall was demolished in the early 19th century. Tree ring analysis has confirmed that there were several phases of rebuilding and repair, particularly dating to the mid-late 16th century and mid 18th century. Excavations have uncovered the remains of the hall and cross wing built by the Engaine family in the late 14th/early 15th century. The property subsequently passed to the Wybergh family in whose hands it remained until the late 19th century. During the Jacobite risings in 1715 William Wybergh was kidnapped by Scottish soldiers and, on 17 December 1745, the building was occupied and plundered shortly before the Battle of Clifton Moor, the last military engagement fought on English soil. The tower was used as a farm building until 1973 when it passed into guardianship of the State. It is now in the care of English Heritage. |
More information : [NY 53072711] Hall [NR] (1)
Clifton Hall consists of a three storeyed tower built in the late 15th or early 16th century. It seems probable that it formed the semi-fortified tower wing of a house of medieval form of which the hall-block and south cross-wing have been destroyed. It is now disused. (2)
NY 53072711 The remains (published on O.S. 25" as Old Hall) consists of a rectangular crenellated pele-tower with a turret on the SW angle. The North and South walls have indications of former supplementary buildings, though no ground evidence of these is visible. The tower is very dilapidated and is used as a farm building. See GP, AO/65/55/2.
The present Clifton Hall at NY 53152709 is a 19th century farmhouse (Listed Building UID 74225). Incorporated in the fabric of its north wall is a Roman memorial slab with carved figures and an inscription. Mr E Holliday, the owner, has no knowledge of its provenance. (3)
Grade III. (4)
Clifton Hall taken into care of the D.O.E. (5)
Excavations in 1977 around the tower revealed building development beginning in the 15th century. The earliest building consisted of a hall-block with a west cross-wing. In the early 16th century the cross-wing was replaced by the still-standing semi-fortified tower wing, and in the 17th century a larger hall-block was built on the south side of the tower. Further additions were made in the 18th century, but demolition of the hall in the 19th century left only the tower standing. (6)
NY 53072711 Clifton Hall tower. A late 15th/early 16th century tower wing, restored in 1979. The earliest building was probably undertaken by Elainor Engaine or her son William Wyberg during the late 14th-early 15th century and consisted of a hall with two cross-wings. The tower replaced the west cross-wing by the late 15th-early 16th century. Shortly afterwards a timber framed structure of two floors was added to the south of the tower. This was demolished towards the end of the 16th or early in the 17th century and replaced by larger stone built hall. During the 18th century further additions were made to the north of the tower. The hall was demolished in the early 19th century and replaced by the present farmhouse a short distance to the east; scheduled. (7)
Clifton Hall Farmhouse. Listed Grade II. (8)
Listed with plan and illustration. (9)
Seventeen core sampled were obtained from this building. Analysis of these produced two dated site chronologies, and dated one sample individually. The first site chronology, CHTASQ01, contains five samples of overall length 86 rings, dated as spanning AD 1655 to AD 1740. The second site chronology, CHTASQ02, contains three samples and is 84 rings long, these dated as spanning AD 1440 to AD 1561. The individually dated sample spans AD 1408-1469. Interpretation of the sapwood would suggest more than one phase of felling. The earliest sample, from a floor-frame, is estimated to have a felling date in the range AD 1543-78. Two other timbers, from the roof, may have been felled at about the same time, but it is equally possible they are later. The latest phase is represented by five samples from the roof, indicating a felling of AD 1740. The individually dated timber is unlikely to have been felled before AD 1484. It would thus appear that at least one mid sixteenth-century timber from the floor frame could be original, but, apart from one, none of the dated timbers in the roof are, these mostly being eighteenth-century replacements, but including some timber felled earlier. (10)
A brief history and description. (11)
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