This fifth of six blogs was initiated following a visit to Gainsborough. Gainsborough Old Hall is a late medieval manor house ranged around a central courtyard which is, however, open to the south. It thus has three connecting ranges of building compartments, north, east and west wings. It is in the guardianship of English Heritage, is Grade 1 listed and is one of the most important historic buildings/houses in England. The original build of the 1460s was given certain Tudor changes with some further changes in the early 17th century.
The surviving Great Hall, the centrepiece of a late medieval stately residence, forms most of the north wing (seen above). This timber-framed building was/is open to the underside of the roof and lit by a stone-built bay window (north facing!) at its east end (see above). The windows in the north facing gable-ends lit the service rooms at either end of the Great Hall – buttery, pantry, kitchen, servery and solar. The huge late medieval kitchen interior survives. The roof of the Great Hall is supported by oak arch-braced trusses cut from trees with a curved profile (like a cruck construction) with no tie beams spanning the upper hall space. There is evidence for a once central open hearth. Most of these features are/were reflected it the surviving part of a late medieval box-frame structure at the rear of 51, Fleetgate, Barton, albeit on a more modest scale. Unfortunately ‘Barton’s oldest building’ is currently closed to the public pending a structural survey.
The timber-framed walling of the east wing of Gainsborough Old Hall was later encased in Tudor bricks, with the bay windows being added at the same time. At the north-east corner of the east wing was built a complex brick tower (see above) with a fireplace and garderobe in each room of its three stories.
(To be continued).