61 



two bed-rooms on the first floor. Examples of these are 

 to be seen at "the Shorey" in Biurnley, Worsthome, 

 Hurstwood, and other neighbouring vUlages. 

 Materials. — Just as brick walls with thatched roofs are the 

 characteristics of many of the old HaUs in the Midland and 

 Southern Counties, varied with half-timbered Houses in the well 

 wooded districts, so this being pre-eminently a stone district 

 the walls are invariably built of this material. As it was veiy 

 plentiful the old builders were lavish in its use, making the in- 

 ternal as weU as the external walls about 2 feet thick, facing the 

 latter with roughly dressed course stones, bedded in and pointed 

 with a good quality of lime mortar ; the inside facing also was 

 bedded in mortar and the centre filled in with dry saplings to 

 allow any moisture that penetrated the outer facing to fall to the 

 ground. The stone generally used, (at any rate that for the Old 

 Lodge, Danes House, Extwistle, Worsthorne, Barcroft and Hm-st- 

 wood with parts of Towneley,) was the grit rock which was 

 obtained from the boulders, which at that time were plentifully 

 scattered on the surface throughout the whole of the district. 

 Many of these are stiU remaining on Marsden Heights, and the 

 same strata of rock is stiU. to be seen bared in the ravine behind 

 Hurstwood Hall. These were carted to the sites of the Halls, 

 cut up into the sizes required, and possibly explains the shape of 

 the windows and the peculiar methods of jointing adopted in 

 their construction, they being in small stones, though with mas- 

 sive mouldings. In the cases of the larger stones required for 

 square headed door tops which were wrought out of one stone, 

 these were obtained from the millstone grit found further up on 

 the moors. The wallstones for the general facing of the walls 

 were in aU thicknesses and placed in irregular com-ses just as 

 they were obtained ; the angle quoins were also of aU sizes and 

 shapes, in consequence considerable picturesqueness was added 

 to their appearance. Most of the windows were protected by 

 the overhanging labels, and many of the gutters were emptied 

 through quaint projecting gargoyles. 



The thickly wooded district provided an ample supply of oak 

 for the bearing timbers which were of enormous size and capable 

 of carryiag far more weight than was ever put upon them. The 

 divisions of the rooms were generally formed of oak with moulded 

 panels and fluted framing, much of which is of specially good 

 design. Some of the walls of the rooms were also covered from 

 floor to ceiling with panelled framing of similar character. The 

 roofs were covered with what are technically called grey slates, 

 being thin slabs of stone secured with wooden pegs. These were 

 far to be preferred to the blue Welsh or Westmoreland slates, as 

 in the absence of wood and plaster ceihngs to the bed rooms, they 

 made a covering that was cooler in summer and warmer in winter. 



