LEYLAND HUNDRED 



LEYLAND 



would assume more or less of its present aspect at 

 that time. 



There has also been a great deal of change at the 

 south-east end of the house, where a long narrow 

 wing 5 2 ft. in length by i 3 ft. wide externally runs 

 southward at right angles to the main building. 

 This wing, locally known as Hanging End, forms 

 a very picturesque feature from the garden, but its 

 original purpose is hard to determine. Additions 

 have been made to it at its north end on both sides, 

 reducing its apparent length externally by about one- 

 third, and an external flight of stone steps leading to 

 an entrance on the first floor has been erected on the 

 east side. The first, floor forms a kind of long 

 gallery 50 ft. by 9 ft. 6 in., lit on the west by 

 three windows, and by a single one in the end wall. 

 The east wall has a single window of four lights, but 

 during the restoration a continuation of this window 

 northward was discovered showing it to have been 

 originally a long window of twelve lights occupying 

 the whole of the middle part of that side of the 

 room. 



The great hall occupies the whole of the north 

 side of the upper courtyard, from which, with its 

 long range of windows, great gabled bay, and flight of 

 semicircular steps, it forms a very charming feature. 

 It goes up the full height of both stories, and breaks 

 the monotony of the otherwise almost too uniformly 

 regular design of the house. On the three other 

 sides of the courtyard the eaves run round at the 

 same level, giving little distinction to the roof. A 

 lead statue of King William III on a stone pedestal, 

 brought from Walton Hall when that house was 

 abandoned early in the 19th century, greatly adds 

 to the picturesqueness of the upper courtyard, being 

 placed immediately opposite the entrance archway 

 slightly to the north of the centre of the quadrangle. 

 Owing, no doubt, to the irregularity of the site 

 the usual disposition of the kitchen in relation to the 

 great hall and screens does not strictly obtain in 

 Hoghton Tower. The fall of the ground has been 

 taken advantage of architecturally to raise the floor of 

 the hall some 5 ft. above that of the lowest point of 

 the courtyard, while the floor of the kitchen, which 

 is immediately to the west of the hall, is some 2 ft. 

 below. The usual doors to the kitchen and offices 

 from the screens are therefore not possible, the way 

 to the kitchen from the hall being from the south 

 end of the screens by a descent of seven steps to a 

 lobby opening from the courtyard from which the 

 kitchen is entered. There is another descent of three 

 steps within the kitchen itself There is nothing to 

 indicate that this arrangement is not part of the 

 original plan, though it is possible that the hall was 

 rebuilt in its present form in the beginning of the 

 1 7th century in anticipation of the king's visit. 

 Architecturally, however, as viewed from the court- 

 )-ard, the effect of the hall floor being thus raised 

 above the level of the rest of the house is extremely 

 good, being responsible for the emphasis of the great 

 sweep of the stone steps in the north-west corner. 



The great hall is 52 ft. 6 in. in length, including 

 the passage behind the screen at the west end, and 

 26 ft. in width. It has a flat panelled wood ceiling 

 1 8 ft. high, and at the east end, north and south of 

 the high table, are two fine semi-octagonal bay windows 

 12 ft. wide and 10 ft. 6 in. deep, the full height of 

 the room, divided by three transoms, the sills 3 ft. 6 in. 



from the floor. The hall is further lit on the south 

 side by a range of mullioned and double transomed 

 windows, consisting of fourteen lights placed high in 

 the wall, the sills being 7 ft. from the floor, and there 

 is a similar window of eight lights at the east end. 

 The floor is flagged and the walls are of stone, but 

 panelled in oak to the height of 7 ft. All the panel- 

 ling, however, and the woodwork to the ceiling 

 belong to the modern restoration, but otherwise the 

 hall has been very little altered and retains all its essen- 

 ti.il features. The screen and gallery at the west end 

 are good examples of late 17th-century woodwork with 

 turned Jacobean balusters, the lower part having open 

 panels closed by shutters to the passage.' Over the 

 fireplace is a lofty stone arch, now filled in, but pro- 

 bably marking the opening of an original ingle, the 

 fireplace itself being a later insertion of stone with 

 square moulded opening and carved spandrels. There 

 is a good cast-iron grate and fire-back, the grate bearing 

 the initials of Sir Charles Hoghton and the date 1702. 

 There is a good 18th-century brass chandelier, and 

 the original high table remains, though now on the 

 south side of the room. There is no raised dais. 



The doorw-iy at the north end of the screens, 

 which has moulded stone jambs and a four-centred 

 stone arched head with carved spandrels, was origi- 

 nally an outer opening, but at some later date a large 

 porch with room above, 1 6 ft. 6 in. by 1 9 ft., appears 

 to have been added, having two semicircular-headed 

 openings in the north side and a doorway of similar 

 design in the south-east corner. Externally this north 

 porch, now made into a private dining-room, exhibits 

 some of the rare architectural ornament to be found 

 at Hoghton Tower, the elevations on the ground floor 

 having a series of pilasters on corbelled pedestals 

 carrying a small entablature and cornice. The 

 pilasters are carved with good Renaissance ornament. 

 In the restoration the original exterior appearance of 

 the porch has of course been lost, the openings being 

 filled in with modern wooden windows and the door- 

 way built up. The room above is gained from the 

 minstrels' gallery and has an opening in the wall 

 overlooking the great hall. Externally its gable and 

 chimney form a rather picturesque feature taken in 

 conjunction with the bay and chimney of the hall. 



From the east end of the great hall a door leads 

 by way of what is now the entrance hall to the east 

 wing, which contains the state apartments, and origi- 

 nally to the chapel. The state rooms, sometimes 

 called the King's Rooms, from the fact that they were 

 occupied by King James I in 161 7, consist on the 

 ground floor of the King's Hall, a large ap.irtment 

 38 ft. long by 20 ft. wide, with a staircase at its south 

 end, and beyond it again to the south another room 

 of the same width and 4 1 ft. in length, now used as 

 a billiard room and library. The staircase is the 

 original 1 7th-century one restored, but otherwise, 

 like most of the other rooms in the house, these two 

 pieces contj(in little that is ancient except their walls 

 and windows. They extend, as is the case with 

 most of the rooms in Hoghton Tower, across the full 

 wid.h of the wing, and are lit on both sides by 

 windows to the courtyard and to the garden. On 

 the upper floor the staircase, which is centr.ally placed. 



' The balusters alone appear to be Jacobean. The panelling 

 and woodwork look like late 17th or early i8th-centuiy work, 

 and perhaps are of the same period as the cast-iron grate. 



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