A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



robbed the country of any of the beauties it formerly 

 possessed. 



The house appears to have been built about the 

 years 1631 to 1634. Both dates are on the build- 

 ing, and probably it was in course of construction for 

 some time prior to the latter year. The gatehouse 

 and other detached buildings were erected shortly 

 after. The house is a highly picturesque half-timbered 

 building on a low stone base, two stories in height, 

 facing the south, and occupies the north side of a 

 small courtyard, to the south of which is a larger 

 courtyard, on to which the stables and outbuildings 

 open. Behind the stables to the south is the stable 

 yard the whole forming a symmetrical arrangement 

 of three quadrangles which gives to the hall and its 

 outbuildings an appearance of size and importance 

 which with less systematic planning it would not 

 have possessed. Though retaining a great many of 

 the characteristics of the older Lancashire houses, both 

 as regards plan and elevations, Kenyon Peel at the 

 same time exhibits the influence of new ideas, these 

 buildings showing evidences everywhere of a well 

 thought-out plan, and a desire for balance and sym- 

 metry. In its general arrangement and appearance 

 the hall is not very much altered from the time it was 

 built, though there was a good deal of work done in 

 the interior in the way of fittings and decorations in 

 the 1 8th century, and a brick wing was added at the 

 back on the west side of the house at the same period. 

 A later extension at the north-east was made as late 

 as 1870. 



Owing to mining operations many settlements 

 have occurred and at one time the house was 

 allowed to fall into disrepair and had to be shored up. 

 It was restored, however, in the early eighties, but 

 the work then done has destroyed a good deal of the 

 original detail and has substituted a rather hard fresh- 

 ness in place of picturesque decay. The half-timber 

 front has been renewed in a manner which does not 

 strictly carry out the design of the old work. All the 

 barge-boards and hip-knobs are new, and the old grey- 

 stone roof coverings have been replaced by blue slates. 

 The building nevertheless retains a picturesqueness 

 which it owes to its arrangement and plan as well as 

 to its more strictly architectural features. 



The house itself consists of a main block standing 

 east and west, with three projecting gabled bays, the 

 middle one of which contains the porch. At either 

 end of the main front is another projecting bay, 

 the whole forming a kind of irregular r'H shape. 

 The principal front thus has seven gables, five facing 

 south and one at each end facing inward to the court- 

 yard. These many gables, especially when seen at a 

 distance from the south-east in conjunction with the 

 gatehouse, give a broken and irregular skyline which 

 is very pleasing. The return ends of the two outer 

 wings are faced with stone, and the remainder of the 

 sides and the whole of the back elevation is in brick. 

 A portion of the timber framing, however, shows at 

 the back of the hall. A lead spout-head on the west 

 side of the house bears the date 1741 and the 

 initials G ^ P . 



The plan of the house itself shows the influence of 

 the old ideas, the great hall occupying the central 

 position, with a passage answering to the screen at 

 the west end opposite the porch. The porch and bay 

 window of the hall are under the central projecting 

 gable, the unusual position of the bay being due to 



considerations of symmetry in the external arrange- 

 ment. The great hall, which is in no way emphasized 

 in the exterior elevation, is a low room, 30 ft. in 

 length (including the passage) by about 20 ft. wide, 

 with a bay window 6 ft. wide and 8 ft. deep at the 

 south-west corner, and mullioned windows on the 

 north and south with a fireplace at the north-west. 

 The room was probably used much as a modern dining- 

 room, but is now the drawing-room. The ingle 

 nook in the north-west is now built up and a modern 

 fireplace inserted. There are windows on both sides 

 of the room. The hall is panelled all round, with 

 classic pilasters to the bay window and to the door- 

 cases at the east end. Most of the panelling is 

 the original oak wainscot, but it has been repaired 

 with pitch pine, and the whole is now painted white. 

 The ceiling, which is only 8 ft. 6 in. high, is crossed 

 by four beams and is quite plain. Beyond the hall on 

 the east end of the house is the present dining-room, 

 a small room 17 ft. square, looking on to the inner 

 courtyard. It is lined with 18th-century panelling 

 and has a semicircular recess on each side of the fire- 

 place. Beyond is the main staircase, with twisted 

 balusters and square newels, and half balusters against 

 the walls. Behind the dining-room is another smaller 

 room looking east, also lined with 18th-century 

 panelling and now called the housekeeper's room. At 

 the other side of the staircase, at the end of the east 

 wing, is the oak parlour, or smoke room, which, as its 

 name implies, is also panelled, and has a fine Jacobean 

 chimney-piece, the upper part being divided into three 

 panels by four allegorical female figures. The centre 

 panel has the arms of Kenyon quartering Rigby. 



To the west of the great hall are rooms correspond- 

 ing to the dining-room and oak parlour, called respec- 

 tively the pomegranate room and the library. The 

 pomegranate room takes its name from the plaster 

 ornamentation of the ceiling, but is otherwise plain. 

 The library is lined all round with deep bookshelves 

 with wooden fronts of 18th-century date, and there 

 are cellars under these two rooms. Upstairs there are 

 portions of oak panelling in some of the bedrooms, 

 but nothing of special note except in Lord Kenyon's 

 bedroom, over the oak parlour. This room contains 

 some very good 17th-century oak panelling, with 

 richly carved upper panels and cornice. Over the 

 fireplace, forming part of an elaborately carved mantel- 

 piece, are two painted armorial panels with the date 

 1637. The ceiling, which is plain, is arched in 

 section, and the door is 18th-century work. The 

 bedroom over the drawing-room has also an arched 

 ceiling with plaster ornamentation near the springing. 

 The floors all over the house are very uneven owing 

 to the settlements. There is a second staircase on 

 the west side of the house with old oak treads but 

 modern varnished balusters. The whole plan indicates 

 the period of transition in manners which in other parts 

 was much earlier than 1630, but which was necessarily 

 delayed in the country districts. There are no corridors 

 in the house, most of the rooms being more or less , 

 passage rooms. 



In a document dated 1783, now at the house, the 

 courtyards are called the ' green court ' and the * flag 

 court,' the former being apparently the outer. The 

 portion of the grounds between the house and the 

 road on the east side is called the ' wilderness,' and 

 mention is made of ' barns, stables, shippons, fold, &c.,' 

 on the south side. The wilderness was an irregularly- 



