A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



mullioned windows on the west side and a two-light 

 window facing south. There is no internal plaster 

 on its stone walls. 



On the east side is a wood-and-plaster partition on 

 a low stone base, with a door at each end leading to 

 the passage, the upper part left open and filled in 

 with battens I in. square set diagonally. The pas- 

 sage leads to an outer doorway on the north side of 



GROUND FLOOR 



GROUND AND FIRST FLOOR PLANS OF HALL 

 i' TH' WOOD 



the building, evidently a later insertion, as part of the 

 projecting wall of the north-west wing is cut away to 

 allow for it. At the other end the passage opens into 

 the staircase bay, from which there is an outer door 

 on the west. The screen arrangement between this 

 room and the kitchen, and the convenient proximity 

 of the room to the great hall staircase, suggests that 

 it has been used as a dining-room. 



The new parlour or drawing-room, built by 

 Alexander Norris, measures 2 2 ft. by 1 8 ft. exclusive 

 of the bay, which has a projection of 6 ft. In addi- 

 tion to the bay window it is lighted by a ten-light 

 mullioned and transomed window on the south side. 

 The oak panelling and fireplace were placed here in 

 1904, and were no part of the fittings of the house, 

 having been brought from Buntingford, Hertfordshire. 

 The ceiling is a modern copy of one formerly in an 

 old house in Deansgate, Bolton. The 17th-century 

 oak staircase, which opens to this room, has a small 

 open well, and is a charming bit of work. It has some 

 good Jacobean ornament, especially in the spandrel 

 facing the entrance porch. 



There are four distinct levels on the first floor, 

 accounted for by the difference of height between the 

 great hall and the older rooms on the north side of 

 it, and the two subsequent additions to the house. 

 To this is due the space or cavity I o ft. by 5 ft. high, 

 with no window, at the north end of the hall under 

 the upper corridor, to which access is gained by a hole 

 near the ceiling on the east side of the kitchen. 



There are three rooms over the great hall, the most 

 important being that at the south end known as 

 Crompton's room, which has windows on two sides, 

 and over the fireplace a plaster panel on which are 

 the arms of Starkie. Of the two smaller rooms one 

 is lit only by a small two-light stone window in the 

 narrow space between the staircase bay and Norris's 

 wing. The preservation of some light on this side 

 of the house in the upper floor probably determined 

 the width of the 17th-century addition. The roof 

 spaces, which are open and lit by windows in each 

 principal gable, have floors of beaten clay. 



In an inventory of goods attached to the will of 

 Alexander Norris (24 April 1672) the following rooms 

 and places are named at Hall i' th' Wood. All the 

 rooms cannot now be identified, but the new parlour 

 may be taken to mean the ground-floor room of the 

 south-west wing, and the new parlour chamber the 

 room above it. 



The Greene Parlour 



The [name undecipher- 

 able] Chamber 



Room [name undecipher- 

 able] 



The Kitchen 



The Larder 



The Hall 



The New Parlour 



The New Parlor Cham- 

 ber. 



The Closet 



Granny's Chamber 



The Red Chamber 



The Seller 



The Miller's Roome 



The Chamber over the 



Miller's 



The Workehouse 

 The Barn 

 The Mill 



The five last were probably outside the limit of 

 the present house. 



Hall i' th' Wood, built originally presumably by a 

 Brownlow, continued to be the residence of that 

 family till about 1637, when it was purchased by 

 Christopher Norris. Alexander Norris probably took 

 up his residence here when his father died in 1639, 

 and settled the hall on his daughter Alice, on her 

 marriage with John Starkie, c. 1656. Alice Starkie, 

 who became a widow in 1665, seems to have lived 

 at the hall for some years before her father's death in 

 1672, and continued to reside there till the time of 

 her own decease in 1683. The house appears 

 to have remained unoccupied till 1689, when her 

 second son Nicholas Starkie came to live there, but he 



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