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iisual arrangement of the hall in the centre, the family rooms 

 on the lower side, and the kitchen on the upper. The kitchen 

 end both from the appearance of the masonry and woodwork 

 seems to be of older date. The alterations made in 1614, 

 (the date over the door-case) are interesting as shewing the 

 changes in the habits of life which took place soon after the 

 Ehzabethan epoch. Mr, T aylor says " it is plain the original 

 plan of the house was thus \ j, the entrance to the hall being 

 in the corner, it being removed and placed in the porch, which 

 was erected in 1014, making the plan on the m type, which was 

 supposed to be adopted as a comphment to the Virgin Queen." 



There is no doubt the doorcase was originally in the corner, 

 the entrance to the hall being down the passage and through the 

 screens in the usual way and it is clear the doorcase was removed 

 to the centre of the porch, but I see no evidence in the building 

 that the porch was erected at the time of its removal, but rather 

 that the porch was a part of the original building, it being used 

 as a bay to the hall, Hghted by a three-light window which was 

 cut through when the doorcase was removed ; the present head 

 and label mould still remains, also the ends of the old window sill, 

 the doorcase being placed in the centre of the porch at the 

 Jacobean epoch when symmetry was so much thought of. The 

 ' great hall ' is one of the finest and most complete in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and if the bay (now the porch) was a part of the 

 original structure it would greatly add to its completeness. The 

 hall is 36 feet long, including the screens and ingle nook, 24 feet 

 wide and 14 feet high. The ceiling is flat, with massive oak 

 beams. Although the room is only 14 feet high, space was found 

 over the passage for the minstrels' gallery, with an oak balustrade 

 of turned columns, and a^^proached by a wooden staircase near 

 the entrance. The high table was placed along the side of the 

 room instead of at the end of it, opposite the screens, which was 

 the usual aiTangement, the variation being caused by the ingle 

 nook occupying this position. The ingle nook is a special feature 

 being of extraordinary size, in fact, so large that the whole family 

 could sit round the blazing logs. It is now made into a separate 

 apartment, and the high table has been removed to the servants' 

 hall at Towneley. Near the ingle nook is a solid circular stone 

 staircase leading to the family apartments, the partitions and 

 walls of the latter being of panelled oak and well worthy of a close 

 inspection. It is to be regretted that some of the oak wainscot 

 has been painted over. The doorcase has a square moulded 

 head with the date 1614 upon it, and is finished with frieze 

 and cornice over ; between the triglj'phs of the frieze is the name 

 WiUiam Barcrofb. The house occupies three sides of a small 

 court, the fourth being a wall in which beneath a pediment 

 broken into six gresses and formerly ornamented with pinnacles 



