SALFORD HUNDRED 



BOLTON-LE-MOORS 



harmonize well enough, and the idea of the long low 

 windows of the timber portion is to some extent 

 carried out in stone in the later work. 



The timber framing of the older part of the house 

 is of the usual type in this part of Lancashire, with 

 massive upright and cross pieces, the spaces being 

 filled in with variously ornamented panels. The 

 upper floor stands forward on a slightly projecting 

 cove, and there is a second cove at the level of the 

 eaves, and carried across the gables. Both gables are 

 without barge-boards, and each has a five-light attic 

 window. The north-east bay is treated a little more 

 carefully than the rest, having roughly-carved brackets 

 set at intervals in the plaster cove, while the sill- 

 piece above them is also carved with a square-leafed 

 pattern. 



The south porch is of two stories, and projects 8 ft. 

 from the face of the building. The entrance is under 

 a semicircular arch with moulded impost and label. 



extension and the ashlar facing of sixty years later. 

 The north elevation has been a good deal rebuilt, 

 especially the west end, through the removal (c. 1890) 

 of some later buildings, which were damaged by a 

 landslip consequent on encroachments by the Eagley 

 Brook. 



The hall, which is flagged with stone, measures 

 about 30 ft. long from north to south and 22 ft. in 

 width, and though a good deal repaired it now pre- 

 sents something like its original appearance. The 

 north, east, and south sides show the timber construc- 

 tion, and the west side is occupied by a large stone 

 fireplace rebuilt in the recent restoration and by two 

 doors leading respectively to the two staircases. The 

 two doors formerly on the north side of the passage 

 through the screens are now open to the hall, and 

 had till recently on the north side a lobby, now 

 partly thrown into the kitchen. The hall has a 

 plastered ceiling 1 2 ft. 6 in. high, crossed by massive 



TONGE : HALL i' TH' WOOD 



Over this is a stone bearing the initials A N A , being 

 those of Alexander Norris and Anne his wife. Above 

 is a five-light mullioned and transomed window, with 

 three lights on each return, lighting a small chamber 

 on the first floor. A moulded string-course runs below 

 and above the window, and the parapet is plain with 

 a modern sundial (replacing an older one) on the prin- 

 cipal face, and terminates in a string-course and 

 straight-moulded coping ornamented with spiked 

 finials. These finials are continued along the parapet 

 and gable of Norris's building, and are, with the south 

 doorway, the only evidence of distinctly Renaissance 

 feeling on the outside of the house. 18 There are four 

 lead rain-water heads bearing the date 1648, and one 

 of them on the west side has the initials A N A- The 

 west elevation is very irregular, and shows well the 

 contrast between the rubble walling of Brownlow's 



beams, and is lighted on the south end by a low 

 transomed window of twelve lights, and on the east 

 by another of six lights. There is also a range of 

 windows placed high up at the north end of the east 

 wall, the three north lights of which formerly lit the 

 passage through the screen. 



The north-west staircase is of oak with steps radi- 

 ating from a central newel and built up between walls 

 in a space measuring about I o ft. by 9 ft. The rooms 

 to the north of the hall have no particular interest. 

 Both have plaster ceilings crossed by beams, that 

 known as the kitchen being lighted on the north by a 

 six-light stone mullioned window, and the other now 

 used by the caretaker by a low ten- light mullioned 

 window on the east. The ground-floor room of the 

 north-west wing, which is styled the dining-room, 

 and sometimes the larder, has two low three-light 



18 A formal garden with gates, balustrades, and obelisks has been lately laid out on the south and west, and rather adds emphasis 

 to the late detail. 



257 



33 



