LEYLAND HUNDRED 



RUFFORD 



bizarre and oriental character, but harmonizing in a 

 grotesque icind of way with the late Gothic ornament 

 around them, though altering in a great degree the 

 general appearance of the whole. Between the posts 

 and the walls the speres are panelled in oak, the 

 upper panels having pierced quatrefoils. 



At the north-west corner of the hall is a bay- 

 window loft. 6 in. wide and loft. in depth imme- 

 diately to the north of the high table, with nine 

 square-headed lights divided by a transom, and there 

 are two square-headed windows, each of four lights, 

 on the north side placed high in the wall, their sills 

 being 8 ft. above the floor. The north wall is the 

 original timber-framed one set on a stone base 2 ft. 

 high, with plain panels between the wall posts, the 

 lower portion being entirely of plaster. Above the 

 windows, however, runs a line of panelling with 

 arched heads and late Gothic ornament, which, 

 together with the hammer-beams and the embattled 

 and moulded \vall-plate above, gives a very rich 

 appearance to the room as the eye travels upward. 

 This concentration of ornament in the upper part 

 is indeed one of the reasons for the exceedingly good 

 architectural effect of Rufibrd Hall, and it is again 

 carried out at the west end, where the plain wood 

 and plaster \vork behind the high table gives way 

 first to the square panelling and curve of the canopy, 

 then to the moulded and embattled tie-beam, and 

 lastly to the gable above with its elaborate diagonally 

 set quatrefoils. The door heads, like those in the 

 screens, are also richly carved, giving the requisite 

 relief to the otherwise plain lower portion of the wall. 

 The south side of the hall may have been rebuilt 

 at a later time, but is of timber construction at each 

 side of the fireplace, though very much repaired with 

 deal.l The stone fireplace and chimney would 

 probably replace an old central brazier, though the 

 spacing of the roof principals does not actually suggest 

 a louvre, and the date of the hall is rather late for that 

 means of heating to have been originally employed. 

 Externally the chimney is a substantial one of stone 

 with deeply moulded base and four square stages 

 diminishing in width above, and the wall is built of 

 stone some distance on each side. The present 

 glazed lantern belongs only to the year of restoration 

 (1821), but that a lantern or louvre formerly 

 occupied the same position is shown by a rough- 

 drawn view of the hall on an 18th-century map. 

 Whether this was the original louvre it is, however, 

 impossible to tell. The determination of the date at 

 which the hall was built is rendered difficult by the 

 presence together of a louvre and the crest and 

 badge of the Stanley family — the eagle and child 

 carved on the roof, and the legs of Man in one of the 

 spandrels of the bay window.^ The use of the 

 Stanley crest and badge could hardly have occurred 

 at RufFord before the marriage of Robert son of 

 Sir Thomas Hesketh to Mary daughter of Sir George 

 Stanley of Cross Hall about 1568, which would 

 place the building of the hall, if the carvings are 

 contemporary, in the latter half of the 1 6th century. 

 They may, however, very well be later ornament 



added to the old work, possibly at the time when the 

 south side was rebuilt and the fireplace added. The 

 arms of the Earl of Derby surrounded by a garter 

 and with helm, crest and mantling, are in the glass 

 of the bay window. In the reconstruction of the south 

 wall the windows appear to have been lengthened, 

 the eills being lowered, and the stone base was 

 apparently raised two courses, increasing its height to 

 3 ft. 8 in.^ 



Externally the great hall has been a good deal 

 restored and the oak pegs made rather conspicuous 

 against the black timber by being picked out in 

 white. A plaster cove runs along the north front 

 under the caves and round the bay window, which is 

 hipped back to the main roof. The spaces between the 

 windows are filled in with quatrefoils and the 

 principal uprights have shallow wooden buttresses 

 with sets-ofF many times repeated. The roof, 

 together with those of the rest of the house, is covered 

 with stone slates. The west gable, formerly an 

 internal feature, is composed of simple uprights and 

 cross pieces without a barge-board, and though 

 severely constructional has a good effect. Externally 

 there is little of the elaborate detail seen inside the 

 hall, almost the only ornament introduced being in 

 the spandrels of the door to the screens, which are 

 carved with grotesque animals. The windows have 

 diamond quarries, but the general effect of the north 

 front is somewhat spoiled by the rebuilt gabled wing 

 at the east end, which was carried out in a style meant 

 to match that of the hall but at a rather unfortunate 

 period. The painting of the old work has, moreover, 

 unfortunately been carried out to harmonize with the 

 new, in which the windows are large and ugly and 

 the gable pierced by glazed quatrefoil openings at 

 each end. On the south and east sides the rebuilt 

 portion of the house is faced with red brick and has 

 no particular distinction. In plan and internal 

 arrangement it is completely modern, though on the 

 first floor the drawing-room, which runs across the 

 whole length of the wing with windows north and 

 south, probably occupies the position of a similar 

 room in the original building, the open-timber roof 

 of which has been retained. This room is 44 ft. long 

 by 1 7 ft. wide with a bay window at the south end. 

 The roof is divided into six bays by five principals 

 with embattled tie-beams which appear to be of 

 16th-century date, but the moulded wall posts belong 

 to the early 19th-century rebuilding. The drawing- 

 room contains a number of pieces of 17th-century 

 oak furniture, some of which, however, have suffered 

 at the hands of restorers. There are also other pieces 

 of furniture of the same period in other parts of the 

 house, which is now occupied by Mr. Robert Rankin. 



The north-east 17th-century wing is 52 ft. long 

 by 28 ft. in width, with a smaller wing running east- 

 ward, 40 ft. long by 18 ft. wide, containing the 

 kitchen and scullery, to the north of which again 

 larders have been .added. The front facing west to 

 the courtyard is a plain design in brick, with square- 

 headed casement windows and central doorway with 

 semi-domed hood. It is of two stories, with an 



' The wall was in 1908 stripped of 

 the ivy which had long covered it and 

 found to be faced on the outside with deal 

 boards and plaster to imitate half-timber 

 work. When this was done is not known, 

 but it may only date from 1821. 



^ The shields carved on the roof 

 principals, reading from the east end, 

 are as follows ; I. Over screen, Min- 

 shuU ; 2. Hesketh ; 3. Quarterly (i) 

 Hesketh (2) Banastre (3) MinshuU 

 (4> a fesse Twenge. 4. Eagle and Child. 



12? 



5. Tudor rose. The MinshuU arms 

 occur again in the spandrel of the bay 

 window. 



^ The original stone base 2 ft. high is 

 still easily distinguished. 



