A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



originally lighted from the upper windows only. 

 The greater part of the south or lower end of the hall 

 is tikcn up by a great fireplace with a heavy carved 

 wood lintel and seats in the ingle. Above the fire- 

 place is a panelled and embattled front, in plaster, and 

 to the west of the fireplace, over the entrance from 

 the screens, is a wooden gallery, entered from the 

 first-floor rooms to the south. The hall is completely 

 panelled in wood, that at the upper end being specially 

 notable, both for its deep mouldings and free-standing 

 fluted pillars, and for the tradition that it formed part 

 of the loot of Holyrood Palace in 1544. 



From the screens at the south end of the hall a 

 porch gives access westward to the gardens through a 

 sandstone arch with renaissance cresting, built in 

 1605 by Edward Norris, and bearing his initials and 

 those of his wife Margaret (Smallwood). The rooms 

 south of the hall passage are of little interest internally, 

 that immediately to the south-west being used as a 

 drawing-room, and the others as housekeeper's room, 

 cellar, store-room, and butler's pantry. The bay 

 window corresponding to that at the north-east of the 

 hall is, and has been from the first, divided into two 

 stories, the upper being now used as a bedroom. The 

 drawing-room and butler's pantr)' with the rooms 

 over them belong to the older work, the block now 

 containing the cellar, &c., being added to range and 

 harmonize with the former, but clearly showing its 

 later date by the differences in detail. 



The external elevation of the range just described, 

 facing westward to the garden, forms one of the most 

 charming pieces of domestic architecture in the 

 country. The gables have lost, in all cases but one 

 (that over the north-west bay of the hall), the carved 

 barge boards which so greatly enhance the effect of 

 the east front, and only three of the tall hip-knobs 

 remain, but these defects are more than compensated 

 for by the variety and richness of the timber-work, 

 and the different sizes and projection of the gables. 

 The frames of the first-floor windows, set out slightly 

 from the wall face, and the moulded brackets which 

 carry them, are good examples of a class often found 

 in the Lancashire houses. 



The southern wing contains the kitchen and offices, 

 its salient feature being the massive stone chimneys 

 which take up nearly the whole of the south front. 

 From its west end a modern range of buildings runs 

 southward, bounding the paved yard, from which a 

 bridge leads southwards over the moat to the site of 

 the farm buildings. 



On the first-floor of the house corridors run round 

 the inner sides of the north, east, and south ranges, 

 opening to a series of rooms which, apart from their 

 furniture, have little architectural interest. The roof 

 space is, as usual, plastered and clay-floored, but has 

 one unusual feature, a small room with a fireplace 

 over the servants' hall, which, as has been said, may 

 have been the chapel. There is a small staircase to 

 this room. It is worthy of note that the ridge of the 

 roof of the north wing is over the centre of the range 

 of rooms on the upper floor, and not over that of the 

 full width of the range including the corridor, which 

 has separate timbers carrying down the slope of the 

 roof It is possible that this may imply a retention 

 of an older arrangement of the house ; but nothing 

 else in the detail gives any support to the idea. The 

 gabled roof of the north-east bay window of the hall is 

 apparently a later addition, as the embattled plate of 

 the hall continues behind it, and there is also the head 



of an upright timber with part of an applied wooden 

 ' buttress ' like those elsewhere in the court. 



A MS. inventory of household stuff at Speke Hall 

 in 1624, preserved at Rydal Hall, Westmorland,' gives 

 a list of the rooms then existing. It is not possible 

 to identify all the rooms mentioned, and the order in 

 which they are named does not give much help, but 

 the list is of sufficient interest to be quoted in full : — 



The chamber called the little nursery 



The chamber called the great nursery 



The withdrawing chamber 



The chamber over the compast window 



The chamber at the stair-head 



The chamber over the old chapel called Sir 

 Thomas Gerard's chamber 



The painted chamber 



My lord's chamber 



The chamber over the school 

 The inner chamber 



The chamber over the gates 



The Chapel chamber 



The chamber next to Mr. Tyldesley's 



Mr. Tyldesley's chamber 



The School chamber 



The seller chamber 



The great parlour 



The little parlour 



The hall 



The new little Chapel 



My mistress' chamber 



Mrs. Wolfall's chamber 



The kitchen chamber 



The corn chamber at the stairhead 

 The inner chamber 



The trunk chamber 



The cheese chamber 



The chamber over the little parlour 

 The inner chamber 



The old Chapel (chests and lumber) 



The store house 



The closet over against the kitchen chamber 



The porter's chamber (bedstocks) 



The brewer's chamber (bedstocks) 



The chamber next the new bridge where the 

 gardens lie 



In the New Building : — 



The chamber next the brew house 



The chamber where the chimney is 



The tailor's chamber 



The dove house chamber 



The work house (bedstocks) 



The horse keeper's chamber 



The chamber where the servants lie, which is on 



the left side of the stairs 

 The chamber on the right side of the stairs 

 The ox keeper's chamber 

 The chamber over the dog kennel 

 The chamber adjoining the stairhead 

 The Upper Gallery 

 The Lower Gallery (pikes, &c.) 

 In the false roof {int. al. one canopy, one clock 



and a bell, some armour) 

 In the outcast window by the kitchen where the 



yeomen dine 

 The dey house 

 The brew house 



' Kindly communicated by Mr. R. D. Radcliffe, F.S.A. 



'38 



