Smardale Hall Pele

Description

Smardale Hall (Plate 18), on the W. side of the parish, is of two storeys with attics; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. The house belonged to the families of Smardale and Warcop in the Middle Ages and passed from the latter to the family of Dalston late in the 16th century. The house seems to have been re-built about this date on an unusual long rectangular plan (86 ft. by 27 ft.) with round towers at the angles. A later wing has been added to the E. of the S. end and the building was restored late in the last century. The angle-towers have a slight batter; they have single-light windows and conical roofs. The N. end retains its two original four-light transomed windows with moulded labels. The two corresponding windows in the S. end have been altered. The windows in the side walls are similar to those in the N. end but the majority of them have been wholly or partly renewed; in the E. wall is an original doorway with a triangular arch in a square head; above it is set a carved boss with foliage, perhaps of the 14th century. Inside the building, the S.E. tower contains a stone staircase and there was formerly a second staircase in the N.W. tower. The kitchen has a wide fireplace with a segmental arch; it is partly filled in. (RCHME 1936)

A hall house which dates from the 15th and 16th centuries. The present hall house is of coursed rubble and has a tower at each corner. It has a graduated slate roof with stone chimneys. It is two storeys high with six bays. An attached range of farm buildings once formed the south range to the hall's original courtyard plan. These buildings have slobbered rubble walls with graduated slate roofs and are two storeys high. There was formerly a 14th century tower house since largely demolished, now represented by a newel at the south-east corner of the present house. Earthworks may mark the site of the Mediaeval house adjacent to that. (PastScape)

Comments

PastScape places the former tower as at the south east point of the modern turreted house. Perriam and Robinson write that 'Machell shows a C14 century towerhouse in the E wing' - the plan shows the tower in a, now lost, east range. The Machell plan shows a courtyard house with ranges of buildings on three side and a wall with gate on the north side. The surviving buildings are the west and south range. The current east range seems to be on a slightly different alignment (and possibly a bit further east) from the medieval east range which contained the tower.
The adjacent earthworks have been identified as a possible motte.