Sharpcliffe

ringsSharpcliffe Hall is a substantial Grade II* listed, stone-built double pile building constructed of local materials. To its front Sharpcliffe presents three short north-south gabled ranges of two-storeys-with attics, attached to a longer two-storey with attics east – west range. There is a further two storey extension to the east end. Within the roof or attic spaces, and also the first floor, is a substantial amount of timber framing. The roof comprises four principal rafter trusses, each having, or at one time having, a tiebeam and a collar. Some of the trusses have been filled with vertical studs (many studs being lost in times past when chimneys and other attic insertions were made). At some time after their construction, the trusses were altered by having new, outer, rafters placed over the original inner ones, the space between them being filled with short struts or studs. To the first floor the trusses are filled by close-set vertical studs. Stylistically, the stone work, the mullion windows and the form of the timber-framing suggest a mid-seventeenth century date for this building. The date of the later alterations to the roof is unknown. Tree-ring analysis shows that the primary phase timbers of Sharpcliffe Hall date to 1650 – 55. The alterations, which must have been undertaken some time after this date, use timber felled ca 1627 – 31, which must, presumably, have been salvaged from somewhere else and reused here.