The Covid pandemic meant I didn't visit my local National Trust property last year, so I'm going to make up for that this year as it is only about 6 miles away. What's more, you can walk to it along the canal, mostly avoiding roads, so that makes an excursion there even more attractive.
The property in question is East Riddlesden Hall, a 17th century Grade I listed manor house, built on the site of an older farmhouse in 1642 by a wealthy yeoman clothier, James Murgatroyd. He was a Royalist (supporter of King Charles 1, during the English Civil War) and there are various Royalist symbols within the building. Saved from demolition in the 1930s, it was gifted to the National Trust and we can still enjoy it today. It's not huge but has a pleasant intimacy inside, and the gardens around it are well cared for and interesting (although inevitably a bit bare at this time of year).
I noticed this date stone which appears to have been re-used in a wall. The date is 1692 and I can make out the letters E (or B?), S and M. I'm not sure what that signifies, although it appears that in 1692 the hall was owned jointly by Edmund Starkie and the Murgatroyd family.
I've always liked this old door, which is getting increasingly overgrown as the years pass. Just above it is a sundial, though I don't think that is particularly old.
In front of the hall is a large duckpond, and a couple of old barns, though they weren't open to visitors.
I wonder how it looked when freshly built...with the stones maybe not this very dark. Their contrast with the white mortar gives a kind of checker-board feel. Perhaps they have cleaned the mortar but not the stones. It is strange the little wood door and sundial will disappear with foliage on those bushes.
ReplyDeleteQuite an appealing place!
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to have such a place so close.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly looks like BSM.
ReplyDeleteLooks so old. Wonderful to keep these old buildings.
ReplyDelete