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YateleyHall

Page history last edited by Peter Tipton 12 years ago

Yateley Hall, Firgrove Road Yateley

 

Conservation Status: Grade II*, In Yateley Green Conservation Area, Historic Garden

 

This house was the subject of a very detailed historical and archaeological assessment conducted between 1986 and 1992 while the house was undergoing refurbishment.

 

The following two Documents were written to support Open Days at Yateley Hall in 1991

 

 

YATELEY HALL - BRIEF HISTORY R H Johnston

 

Historical Context

 

At first sight Yateley Hall looks like an attractive early eighteenth century country house. In fact, the intimate character of the house derives from the charmingly haphazard mixture of styles resulting from the changes made by each successive owner since the first timber framed house was built in the Middle Ages. A particularly important remodelling of the house was undertaken in 1871-2 by Richard Norman Shaw, one of the greatest and most famous nineteenth century domestic architects. The recent renovation of the house and its conversion into offices marks a further stage in its development. The house shows a fascinating overlaying of work of successive periods, having been modified or extended roughly every thirty or forty years from the sixteenth Century to the present day. Buried within the brick exterior is a high status timber framed farmhouse with a hall and two cross wings dating from no later than the fifteenth century. The house stands on a formerly moated site which has probably been continuously occupied since at least the thirteenth century.

 

The earliest documentary evidence available indicates that the property was owned in 1567 by Andrew Smythe, an armigerous gentleman, who held "a messuage, garden and orchard, called Colcatt's containing 4 acres of land". Oliver Gery owned the house from 1655 to 1658 and Mrs Gery continued to live there at least until 1679. A document, a very early example of estate agent's particulars prepared for Mrs Gery between 1671 and 1682, refers to "A new brick house, strongly built which cost above sixteene hundred pounds the building", surrounded by a large deep moat with a very strong new draw bridge". This document describes a comfortable and fashionable country house with its pools and gardens.

 

Henry Foxcroft, the London lawyer who lived at the house from 1702 to 1732, rebuilt the exterior of the house and gave it much of its present appearance.

 

In 1722 Henry Foxcroft, as a magistrate, wrote a letter to Sir John Cope of Bramshill M.P. which is preserved among the State Papers in the Public Record Office. It refers to an outbreak of attacks on property in the area and says that a man who had been arrested for damaging fishponds at Heckfield had been immediately rescued by his confederates: the magistrates needed support from the Government. Shortly afterwards Parliament passed the so-called "Black Act" which imposed the death penalty for various offences, including damaging fishponds.

 

Rumney Diggle, another London lawyer, owned the house from 1732 to 1754: he was very rich, and was responsible for creating the parkland setting. His son Thomas, another London lawyer, lived all his life at the house until his death in 1794. Thomas Diggle, or the Halhed family (1795-1841) who followed, constructed the large airy ballrooms at the southern end of the house. John Halhed closed a road to the west of the Ha-ha in 1797 and changed the name to Yateley House. The Colletts (1841-56) changed it again to Yateley Hall, and were responsible for the avenue of oak trees on the drive. A series of short term tenants, some of them now with army connections, followed. The writer A C Benson remembered coming over in the 1860s with his parents from Wellington College, where his father (later Archbishop of Canterbury) was headmaster, to visit a Mrs Edwardes at Yateley Hall, and he recalled the delights of fishing in the ponds and having tea on the lawn.

 

In 1871 Martin de Winton Corry leased Yateley Hall and commissioned the architect Norman Shaw to make alterations: alterations executed in his then new "Queen Anne" style which was later to make him so famous. Mr de Winton Corry's daughter bought the house from Collett's executors after his death in 1885. After her mother's death in 1909 Miss de Winton Corry continued to live at Yateley Hall until her own death in 1943. During her time, she made the Hall a centre of village life and numerous celebrations, flower shows, fetes

and sports meetings were held in the grounds.

 

By 1947 the grounds had been whittled away to the 40 acre park. The house was converted into a Convent School by the Farnborough Hill Convent. Later the school extended the building to provide classrooms, and sold off parts of the Park for development or under compulsory purchase. The Convent left in 1981, but the school continued to be run by parents until it finally closed in 1985.

 

Mr John Behan of Lacken Construction Ltd bought the Hall in 1986, and over four years has saved the it from the ravages of decay and neglect, and converted it to provide prestigious office accommodation. While aiming to retain as much of the existing fabric as possible, he has completely restored the house, sensitively added additional accommodation at the northern end, and provided new pitched roofs to the extensions added by the school.

 

Yateley Hall and its grounds have a long history, with both national and local historical connections, and therefore is of great historical importance in this otherwise largely modern community. In recognition of this Yateley Hall is listed Grade II* by the Department of the Environment and the Stable Block is separately listed Grade II.

 

Architectural Development

 

The Early House. The deep wide moat which still completely surrounded Yateley Hall until the end of the seventeenth century proves that the site has been occupied since the medieval period, probably from before 1350. Moats were dug by men of substance, not primarily for defence, but to provide secure overnight accommodation for livestock. The island thus formed was about 30 metres square. Local legends claim that the site was ecclesiastical or even Roman, but no evidence supports these conjectures. What is known is that there was a medieval timber framed house of relatively high status with a hall and two cross wings, much of which survives as internal walls within the house, hidden behind eighteenth century bolection panelling. The original foundations and a sill beam of the east wall are visible below the kitchen stairs. This large farmhouse corresponds to the central section of the present western facade.

 

The hall, which was the communal living room in medieval times, was originally a lofty single storey structure. The northern crosswing is an independent structure, and may have been reerected on this site after being brought from elsewhere. At the southern end of the attic there is a remnant of the original fifteenth century roof of the southern cross-wing, which was probably then a solar of two storeys. This attic room illustrates the eccentricities of the building: this medieval roof was partly cut away and a new roof built on top of it in the eighteenth century. A nineteenth century lead-lined open gutter now runs through this room.

 

Later, probably in the sixteenth Century, three very substantial chimney stacks were added, which still survive, one each at the northern and southern ends of the building and one against the eastern wall of the hall. The northern chimney retains a large brick arched fireplace, much restored, on the ground floor of the northern wing. A similar fireplace in the hall is now partly filled in for a later fireplace and covered by eighteenth century bolection panelling. Remains of the southern medieval fireplace survive behind the bolection panelling of what is now the entrance hall. An early sixteenth century leaded iron casement window can be found at the end of the corridor of the attic.

 

The House "Rebuilt" In the middle of the seventeenth Century the house was remodelled considerably, sufficiently for the 1671-82 document to refer to it as "a new brick house", a house now raised to three storeys, and which cost £1600. This seventeenth century house was described as having a very richly painted interior with oak panelling, and examples of both have been found behind eighteenth century panelling in the former hall. The attic stairs is an excellent example of a staircase of this period: these stairs formerly continued down to the ground floor. Original stud partitions survive, of various dates, particularly in the attics, and the house also has a wide variety of doors. From across the canal on the east side of the house, can be seen a square upstanding brick block of dark bricks, with a row of miniature hipped pitch-and-valley roofs above it that date from this period.

 

The Eighteenth Century The early eighteenth century saw major redevelopment of the house, obliterating most of the immediately visible evidence of the earlier structure. The western facade was reconstructed in Flemish bond chequer-patterned brickwork, and is good example of the Dutch influenced houses of the early eighteenth century. The bold brick chimney stacks of the western facade date from this period. At the same time the medieval moat was filled in on the northern, western and southern sides. The eastern side was extended and widened to form a fashionable Georgian canal on the east side of the house. A little later, a large additional wing was added to the north, partly on the site of the moat.

 

Changing fashion in the early eighteenth century also resulted in the removal of the painted oak panelling in favour of extensive pine bolection panelling, much of which still remains. The panelling in the former hall (the central ground floor room in the centre of the facade) is particularly fine, but there are other rooms with good panelling, some of it of later date, on the ground and first floor. The peculiarities of the panelling, doors, floor levels and other details of the first floor panelled rooms reveal the complexity of the buildings development. On the ground floor, also from this period, are two plank doors, ornamented to look like panelled doors. These doors are fitted with contemporary iron door-fittings. A wooden classical pilaster between them makes an incongruous appearance. The adjacent walls are of plaster, made to look like wood panelling.

 

Hall Cottage, at the northern end of the canal, was originally a seventeenth century building presenting five bays towards the canal with a door in the centre, with blind windows on the first floor, similar to the building just described. It is most notable for an interesting eighteenth century brick vaulted cellar in the "picturesque" style, with three particularly attractive triplets of blind lancet windows on the northern side. The building was converted into a two storey slate roofed cottage in the nineteenth century.

 

The Stable Block to the north of the main building, is a typical provincial Palladian design, built between 1730 and 1750, with a plain recessed centre flanked by two hip-roofed wings with lunette windows. It is a good example of its kind. At the northern end of the main building another seventeenth century outbuilding with an eighteenth century facade, probably designed as the washhouse and brewhouse, has become incorporated in the main structure.

 

The late eighteenth or early nineteenth century saw the addition of two large ballrooms at the southern end. The one overlooking the park originally had a bow window. The front door was moved to its present position from its previous position in the centre of the facade, and made to open onto an entrance hall which still has its charming screen of fluted Roman Doric columns. Curiously no porch was provided until 1991.

 

The Norman Shaw Additions - 1872 The additions by Norman Shaw are an important early work of his, being one of the pioneering examples of a reviving sympathy with English Carolean and Queen Anne architecture. He remodelled and partly rebuilt the Georgian drawing rooms at the southern end of the house, giving them new windows and internal fittings and adding a large bold wooden Conservatory to the south. He also extended this part of the house to the east, placing the wall nearer to the canal bank. A new main staircase was constructed on a very grand scale in polished light oak. The entrance hall was extended to encompass a further room to the north of the staircase, and a new door was placed in this room to give access to the canal. The entrance hall which resulted was on a palatial scale. Some of the rooms on the first floor were also remodelled with unusual cambered ceilings divided into beaded panels. Finally, the appearance of the front of the house was ransformed by the addition of the heavy modillion cornice in place of the earlier modest cornice, and by the renewal of the dormer windows in a similarly bold design.

 

These additions and modifications blend successfully with the earlier house, and form a remarkably early example of the new respect for Queen Anne brick domestic architecture through which Norman Shaw and his associates led English architecture on and away from the Gothic Revival. Not only is the work remarkably sensitive to the original house, but the new East front is a very beautiful piece of architecture in its own right, the fine red brickwork rising out of the canal in a manner reminiscent of seventeenth century Dutch

townscape painting.

 

Shaw's Southern wing demonstrates in its bold half-hipped gable a desire to keep the original roof line of the western facade. This gable and the cambered ceilings of the first floor bedrooms enable the roof line to be retained while allowing rooms with lofty ceilings on the ground floor. A similar expedient was used by Shaw at Cragside in Northumberland at about the same time. Much of the complexity of the roof elsewhere also arises from these artistic considerations. Below the half-hipped gable the new serenity of style is revealed in the high quality red brickwork, the massive modillion cornice and the tall sash windows, arranged on both floors in a tripartite pattern. Inside, the drawing room interior was probably intended to be plain and classical, a reaction against Victorian fussiness, though by early in this century it was extensively decorated with mosaics made of broken pottery, a little of which still survives. A large plate glass window in the south wall in a large arched recess revealed the contents of the Conservatory - an unusual feature which still remains in spite of the replacement of the Conservatory by twentieth century classrooms.

 

The staircase hall internally has a broad timber stairway rising gradually on three sides, with turned balustrading around a central well. The open screen of arches across the top landing perhaps betrays a slightly Jacobean style. A similar arcade screen of three arches is found at the top of the kitchen stairs, for which Shaw may also have been responsible, with a light box inserted to provide a roof light. Construction of this lightbox resulted in the blanking off of a cupboard on the western side of the corridor in the attic above: the eighteenth century doors of the cupboard remain.

 

The Georgian reception room on the Eastern side was completely remodelled internally by Shaw with new panelling and a new main cornice, and has one of Shaw's pretty fireplaces of imitation Delft tiles; opposite is the broad shallow rectangular bay window which Shaw added for the view over the canal. A French window formerly opened into the conservatory at the southern end of the room.

 

Upstairs, in Shaw's wing, there are two attractive bedrooms, one over the drawing room, the other at rightangles at the rear, each originally supplied with a dressing room. Here Shaw adopted a different type of interior style: the rooms have cambered ceilings divided up by ribs into a chequerwork of panels, decorated with wallpaper. The attractive wallpaper decoration dates from the late 1940s but may well have been a replacement for the original: decoration like the pies in the eastern room was very fashionable in 1872.

 

The Eastern facade is particularly fine where the tall red brick hip-roofed facade of the staircase hall and the tripartite bay window of the eastern reception room rise out of the canal as in a Dutch picture. The restrained detailing places all the emphasis on the fine quality of the red brick and the white painted joinery topped by the massive hipped roofs of tiles and leadwork and pedimented dormers - a series of formal symmetrical elements being harmoniously but asymmetrically composed. Equally remarkable in its way, and reflecting the growing sensitivity to the style of older buildings, is the row of pedimented dormers and the massive modillion cornice which Shaw added to the Western facade. These were bolder than the originals, but are in keeping with the longer bolder windows which had been added earlier in the nineteenth century.

 

The Twentieth Century There was no further change to the main buildings until the middle of the twentieth Century. A lodge, now demolished, was built east of the entrance drive about 1900. During its occupation as a school, the building suffered the addition of a series of unfortunate neo-Georgian flat-roofed extensions at both the northern and southern ends of the building. During the 1960s, part of the eighteenth century northern wing was rebuilt (probably because of settlement) with the loss of the huge kitchen fireplace.

 

Lacken Construction Ltd have now made good the ravages of time and have improved the architectural unity of the building. They have given the twentieth century buildings attractive pitched roofs, and have extended the modillion cornice, and they have incorporated the northern outbuilding fully into the main structure. They have transformed Yateley Hall into a building for today, yet one which retains is ancient charm and much of its original variety.

 

Yateley Hall, its associated buildings and its setting is of great architectural and landscape merit both externally and internally, not only in respect of its specifically outstanding features, but also of the many minor features and idiosyncrasies which form its character.

 

The Grounds The walled garden was built at the start of the eighteenth century. The eastern side of the medieval moat was probably redesigned as a canal in the formal style (possibly a Dutch garden influence with canal water features) during the eighteenth century. The Ha-ha is probably eighteenth century too, though it may well follow the line of the western boundary ditch and bank mentioned in the estate particulars of 1671-1682. The "ha-ha" gave the house sweeping lawns immediately in front, replacing the much smaller seventeenth century formal garden within the moat, while beyond was the parkland with unobstructed framed views of grazing animals in the countryside. Within this wider countryside context, the more intimate domestic curtilage was defined by the access drive, shrubberies, estate buildings and pond to the north, by the ha-ha to the west, by the walled garden and pond to the south, and by the canal and formal gardens to the east. Remarkably, much of the feel of this comfortable setting within the wider landscape context remains to this

day.

 


 

YATELEY HALL : A BRIEF GUIDE

by R H JOHNSTON

 

THE PRESENT CONTEXT

 

Yateley Hall is the largest and most important of the buildings in Yateley listed by the Department of the Environment as being of Historic or Architectural Interest. Its Grade II* listing indicates that it is in the top 4% of listed buildings. The Stable block is separately listed as Grade II.

 

The present importance of Yateley Hall and its Park land setting to Yateley derives from its inherent beauty and its prominent position within the village. The Park provides a natural extension to Yateley Green. It is also a powerful reminder to this modern community that Yateley's history stretches back to prehistoric times. For over three hundred years the house was one of the most important in the village, with occupants of "County" status. It was a centre for village social life earlier this century when it was still privately owned. In 1947 it became a Convent school, with the result that many local children gained strong memories of the house and grounds.

 

Architecturally the building is an important example of the way in which houses continuously develop to accommodate the needs and social aspirations of their owners through the centuries. The house incorporates many distinct styles, which tumble over each other in a rich profusion.

 

The house is of national architectural importance through the work which was carried out in 1871-73 under the direction of Norman Shaw, the famous Victorian domestic architect. The alterations to the southern and eastern end of Yateley Hall were an important early work of his. They constitute one of the first examples of the Queen Anne Revival style which Shaw initiated.

 

The house is associated with national events and personalities. In 1722, owner Henry Foxcroft, a Justice of the Peace, wrote a letter from here to Sir John Cope, MP, requesting the help of the Government to put down lawlessness in the area. Shortly afterwards the notorious "Black Act" was passed which introduced draconian punishments for relatively trivial offences.

 

A C Benson, a writer, son of the headmaster of Wellington College who became Archbishop of Canterbury, visited the Hall as a boy in the 1860s. The house, with its pools and gardens made a very powerful impression on his young mind, and he later wrote graphic accounts of his visits there with his parents.

 

Between 1988 and 1991, Mr John Behan of Lacken Construction Ltd. refurbished the house, and improved its external appearance, sparing no expense in carrying out the work in an unusually sensitive manner. At the same time the house has been converted to provide prestigious office accommodation with all the modern facilities, while retaining the historic character. Mr Behan now seeks a firm to take a lease on the offices in single occupation.

 

Local people may remember that the planning permission included a plan for housing, designed as a courtyard style development on land beyond the Ha-ha, tucked out of sight of the Hall between the Wistaria Lane

development and Yateley School. The north facade will be in a style Norman Shaw might have produced with a similar brief, to complement the main facade of Yateley Hall. It is not known when construction of this housing development will begin.

 

 

 


EXTERIOR TOUR OF YATELEY HALL

 

Leave the assembling room to go into the house, turn right, take the first door on the right. Leave the building by the external door in the opposite corner, and go to a position on the lawn in front of the middle of the building where you can get a view of the whole at a glance

 

Look out towards the Park

 

  • What a rural view the Hall has even today. Everything you can see once belonged to Yateley Hall.
  • The Park was developed in the eighteenth century by Rumney Diggle, a wealthy London lawyer, to give the impression that he owned all he could see.
  • The Park was replanted about 1840 by Henry Parker Collett: the trees on each side of the entrance drive date from this period.
  • The ditch with its wall to the right as you come up up the drive is called a Ha-ha. This was built by Rumney Diggle in the eighteenth century to provide an invisible fence for farm animals to protect the lawns of the house, while providing the rural view beyond.
  • The Ha-ha also separated the garden from what was then the main road to London, which ran from the Common down through the village at that time. The road was diverted in 1797. Within the wall now forming the boundary with the Wistaria Lane development, not far from the ha-ha is a milestone, proclaiming 34 miles to London. This stone used to be on the western wall of the walled garden (where the modern estate now stands).

 

Turn to look at the house

 

History

  • Like most old houses, Yateley Hall has grown bigger as successive owners changed the house to suit the requirements of their families, and more importantly their social status, and the requirements of fashion.
  • To ask when the house was built is unanswerable. Alterations and extensions have been made to the building every 30 years or so since it was first built in the Middle Ages. What you see is the accumulated result of all of those changes. The later work did not entirely obliterate or replace what was there before. Labour and materials were expensive, even for the relatively wealthy people who lived here, and the minimum changes were made at each stage to accomplish the changes required.
  • The house never remained in the same hands for long: no family held it for more than 70 years.
  • We know little more than the owners' names until the eighteenth century.
  • Henry Foxcroft, a London Lawyer, bought the house, then called Calcotts, in 1702 and stayed until 1732: he gave the house much of its present appearance
  • After him Rumney Diggle, a wealthy London lawyer, developed the grounds and gave the Hall its rural setting.
  • His family lived here until 1794, when it became the property of John Halhed, who had 13 children.
  • Henry Collett replanted the grounds about 1840 in their present form.
  • A series of short term lets followed, mostly to people with army connections, until the de Winton Corry family took over in 1871. Miss Margaret de Winton Corry, the last private owner died in 1943.
  • After that the building was bought by a local builder who sold the house on to become a Catholic Convent school. The school finally closed in 1985.
  • Continuing the centuries old tradition of change to meet the needs of the time, the building has now been refurbished and converted into offices by the present owner, Mr John Behan of Lacken Construction Ltd.

 

Description

 

The West Face

 

The West Face: Central Section: Medieval house

 

  • The central section of the house (the part with the 3 windows with the two wings on each side) represents the "original" house, but the present brick wall and roof dates from about 1700.
  • This central section appears to be standing on level ground, while the parts to the left are lower and those to the right are higher. The original house stood on a levelled rectangular island with a wide and deep medieval moat around. This was probably constructed between 1200 and 1350.
  • The purpose of this moat was not defence, though it kept casual vandals at bay. It protected the domestic animals from wild animals and rustlers.
  • This moat still encircled the house in 1680, but the part on this side of the house was filled in during the early part of the eighteenth century.
  • The North East Hampshire Archaeological Society excavated part of the moat in 1989.

 

  • Originally the house was a medieval timber framed house, of fairly high status, probably with jettied upper floors on the cross wings. The centre section was single storey, lower than the two wings on each side.
  • There were no chimneys: the smoke escaped through a roof vent.
  • Much of this medieval house is buried in the present structure.
  • The private end of the house, where the owner slept was on the right.
  • The service quarters, for storing food and drink, were in the left wing.
  • Meals for the owner, his servants and farm workers, and other normal social occasions took place in the central hall.

 

  • During the seventeenth century the house was remodelled in brick and increased in height to three storeys at a cost of £1600, then a large sum of money. The lateral extent of the house remained the same.
  • By now, the house had chimneys at each end where they are now and a chimney in the centre, again as now, but their design was more elaborate.
  • Outbuildings were cluttered round the house for animals and servants. Some of these buildings were on this side of the house near to the Ha-ha wall. Some single storey outbuildings were built onto the main house.
  • The house was asymmetrical: the main entrance was at the left hand end of the central section next to the left hand cross wing. This opened into the cross passage within a brightly and elaborately painted main hall.

 

  • After Henry Foxcroft, London lawyer, bought the house in 1701, it was again re-fronted in brick in fashionable chequered brickwork with red stretcher bricks and blue headers. This was a typical elegant Queen Anne house.
  • The house was now symmetrical. The main door was moved to the centre, reflecting a change in the use of this main room to a grand entrance hall. A small projecting porch protected the door from the rain.
  • The windows were shorter and better proportioned than the present ones. There were two windows on each floor in each of the wings.
  • The roof was raised to its present level. It had a less prominent cornice than the present one. There were dormer windows, again less prominent than at present.
  • The chimneys at each end were rebuilt in chequered brickwork: this survives on the left hand chimney; the right hand one has been rebuilt.
  • The area round the house was tidied up. The outbuildings in front of the house were cleared away and most of the moat was filled in.

 

The West Face: Early Eighteenth Century Northern extension

 

  • Soon afterwards an extension was added to the left using the same chequered brickwork.
  • This destroyed the symmetry, but it provided an integral kitchen at the back of the house, probably for the first time. Earlier it was normal for cooking to be carried out in a separate building, along with similar activities like brewing and butter making.
  • Note the blind windows in this extension: there is a header above the right hand one on the first floor. This one was built as a blind window from the beginning: a chimney is built behind it. ((The idea was to maintain the balance between window and wall: these blind windows have nothing to do with window taxes: that had been abolished much earlier))

 

The West Face: Later Eighteenth Century Extensions and Alterations

 

  • In the middle of the eighteenth century a member of the Diggle family of wealthy London lawyers, built an extension in deep red bricks at the right hand end to give two large rooms on each floor. This stood, where the re-faced orange wing with the very large windows now stands.
  • This provided two major rooms for large social entertainments.

 

  • To the left of the chequerboard northern extension, the ground floor wall with the door and pediment and two windows at each side of it was the curtain wall of a courtyard.
  • To the left of that, the section of four windows on the ground floor was a single storey outbuilding, which was re-faced and tidied up about 1750 by the Diggle family. The height of the wall on this side was up to about half way up the next storey with blind windows. It remained like this until the extra storey and roof was added in 1990.

 

  • About 1800 John Halhed bought the house, and made further alterations.
  • The main entrance was moved to its present position (the porch is new).
  • The pairs of windows in the cross wings were converted to single windows.
  • The house was whitewashed to obscure the variations in the brickwork. It continued to be whitewashed well into this century.
  • The right wing extension received a bow window front. All that remains of it is the short section of curving wall in dark red bricks between the old building and the later projecting bay of orange bricks.

 

The West Face: Alterations by Norman Shaw, 1872

 

  • In 1871 Martin de Winton Corry took the house. He commissioned Norman Shaw, one of the most famous Victorian domestic architects to make alterations in 1871-1873. These give the building most of its present appearance. The new work was remarkably restrained for its period.
  • Shaw was responsible for the new orange front on the right hand extension. The semi-hipped gable reduce the visual dominance of the extension while at the same time giving due emphasis to the fact that this is the most important end of the house.
  • Shaw also added a large solidly constructed conservatory at the right hand end as part of the scheme. The modern wings at the right replace it.
  • Shaw was responsible for the present dormer windows and the heavy modillion cornice. He may also have lengthened the older windows, though it is possible that this had been done earlier in the century, at least for some of the windows. However, the upstairs windows of the central section were not lengthened until the early years of this century.

 

The West Face: The Twentieth Century

 

  • During the 1950 and 1960s flat roof extensions were added at both ends to serve as classrooms for the Convent School.
  • During 1990 the former service building at the left was raised to two storeys. The present hipped roofs and the associated modillion cornices were added at the same time.
  • At the extreme left end a school hall was added in the 1950s. This extension, now demolished, is marked by the car park curtain wall.

 

Walk round to the other side of the building via the right hand end.

 

  • The wall which now forms the boundary to the modern housing development is close to the line of the wall which formerly enclosed the walled garden: near to the moat, some of the original wall remains behind the present wall.

 

  • The underground boiler house has been rebuilt above ground, but it was originally constructed in 1872 for the central heating system of the Hall.

 

  • The moat was widened into an eighteenth century formal canal when the moat at the front of the house was filled in. It is well stocked with fish, as was the case in 1680.

 

  • The garden opposite the house has been almost completely replanted, following destructive gales. The bridge across the moat was added in 1991.

 

  • The cottage at the end of the canal was not originally a house. It was built in the late seventeenth century with chequered brickwork, as a service building, with a wide door in what is now the central window on the ground floor. It was given the present roof during the nineteenth century.

 

Cross the wooden bridge and stop at the square with the small yew tree in the middle

 

The East Face

 

  • This was originally the rear of the house. Hall Lane only became important to the orientation and design of the house after the main road on the other side of the house was diverted in 1797.

 

  • Nothing on this side of the house is visible of the earliest house, because it has been extended in this direction along the entire length.
  • The moat bank was piled and strengthened so that these extensions could be constructed.

 

  • The left hand end, up to and including the flat roofed section is 1950s and later, built by the Convent.

 

  • The main feature of the east face is the orange brick section to the right of the flat roofed section, which was rebuilt by Norman Shaw in 1872, but which incorporates some eighteenth century brickwork.
  • This fine orange brickwork is evocative of seventeenth century Dutch houses standing by canals, such as have been so well portrayed by the Dutch school of painters. Shaw is consciously emulating this style, and he does so very successfully.
  • There was also an obvious effort to give a proper frontage to Yateley Hall onto Hall Lane. This is one of the earliest of Shaw's commissions in which he develops the "Queen Anne" style of architecture for which he subsequently became famous.
  • He continued the line of the eighteenth century room along to the right to provide a grand staircase and to increase the size of the rooms that were likely to be used by guests on the ground and first floors.
  • The large windows are those of the main staircase. They allow plenty of light and provide a splendid view over the formal canal. The leftmost of the three long windows corresponds to the south end of the original house with its cross wings.
  • The dormer windows and modillion cornice are particularly successful, especially the semi-dormer window towards the left hand end.

 

  • The brickwork further right, between the orange brickwork and the small external chimney, under the small hipped rooflets dates mostly from the seventeenth century. This corresponds to the northern end of the rear of the original house with its cross wings. The positions of the windows and other features have been altered many times. Curved heads in the upper part of the first floor may once have served windows below.
  • The attic floor may have been added later, probably in the eighteenth century.
  • The hipped rooflets above this section, and that immediately to the right of the small chimney date from the eighteenth century, and these run across the building to the main north south ridge on the front of the house.

 

  • The small external chimney, and the brickwork to the right of it was reconstructed in the 1960s in reused bricks, probably due to subsidence as the structure built on the site of the moat settled. Originally there were no windows here, but instead a very large eighteenth century brick chimney stack for the kitchen.
  • The main buildings which are visible further to the right, and the hipped roofs were all built after 1960.

 

Walk along the garden path, with the moat on your left, past the cottage and stop in front of the carriage doors of the stable block.

 

The Stables

 

  • The stable Block, built by the Diggle family, dates from about 1750 and is a good example of the Provincial Palladian style. Its design was probably taken from one of the copy-books of designs which were current at that time.
  • The central section served as a carriage room for two carriages, and it originally had similar doors on the other side. Above, the hayloft provided storage for animal feed.
  • Until recently the floor of this carriage bay and this small enclosed yard were originally cobbled with sandstone setts, which have been reused on the site to provide rumble strips. Note the eighteenth century hinges have been altered and reused on the carriage doors.
  • The two wings provided stabling for a total of twelve horses, and the right hand wing continued to be used for this purpose into this century.

 

Return towards the cottage, but turn down the alley between the cottage and the stables and stop in front of the porch to the yard

 

The cellar

 

  • On the left are three peculiar blind lancet windows in the wall. Another, bricked in, is on the outer wall of the porch to the car park. These are on the wall of a half submerged cellar, which dates from the middle of the eighteenth century. It is an example of the picturesque style, used by cultured gentlemen to create the impression that their houses were of great antiquity.
  • The porch itself was cut through part of the cellar to provide a tradesman's entrance to the courtyard in the nineteenth century.

 

 

Go through the porch into the courtyard

 

  • The courtyard is much smaller than it was earlier this century. Where the door into the house at the far end is now an opening led into a larger courtyard.
  • The two storey building on the right was until recently a single storey independent service building, originally the wash house, brew house and dairy: it served some of these functions until 1945.

 

For the interior tour, return to the assembling room

 

 

 

INTERIOR TOUR OF YATELEY HALL: GROUND FLOOR

 

Leave the accumulation room, turn right and go along the corridor: stop at the old door frame within the corridor (not the far end one with the step)

 

Stone Passage

 

  • Until early this century, the doorway with its heavy wooden frame was an external door from the courtyard into the service part of the house Note the ironwork to take iron bars and various chisellings to accommodate old door furniture in the frame.
  • The corridor beyond this door was called the stone passage: like most of the servants' end of the house, this corridor was flagged with stone flags. The terrazzo was installed after the second world war. By that time the flags were extremely worn, but as this was the part of the house used by the servants this was regarded as being of little consequence.

 

Enter the former kitchen on the left

 

  • This room was greatly altered about 1960, when the wall to the moat was rebuilt because of subsidence (the north wall is far from vertical), and the windows on the north wall were blocked. Before that the wall to the moat had no windows: instead there was a large chimney breast with a built in range for cooking.
  • The large built in dresser not only provides storage, but it also supports the nineteenth century wooden partitioning to the corridor.

 

Return to the Stone corridor and turn left. Go through the door into the Stone Hall

 

  • This room, called "The Stone Hall" in the nineteenth century, after the stone flagged floor, has been recently divided by the partition and door.

 

North wall

  • On the north wall are two attractive late seventeenth century doors, made with vertical planks on this side and horizontal planks on the other side. Mouldings are planted onto them to make them look like panel doors. They have attractive wrought iron handles, bolts and hinges. The heavy door frames are oak, and may be older.
  • The doors provide security: each is fitted with a spike at the top of the door which prevents the door being lifted off when it is closed.
  • The rear side of the left hand door has attractive wrought iron hinges, and three large nails provide coat hanging behind it.
  • Between the doors is a whimsical decorative wooden pilaster, that is completely out of style with the rest.

 

  • The short section of late eighteenth century style wall panelling on the wall immediately to the left of the left hand door (on the west wall) is constructed entirely in plaster: its surround is made from tiles embedded in plaster. The apparently similar panelling to the right of the right hand door on the north wall is made with wooden surrounds.
  • The small angled section immediately to the right of the right door covers a medieval post carrying the rear corner of the original house

 

East wall

 

  • Behind the panel to the right of the stairs, is a small under-stairs area with a brick floor. Immediately behind the panel is a medieval brick foundation, upon which rests the sill beam of the rear wall of the medieval house.
  • Evidence discovered during the restoration suggests that there have been at least five different staircases in this part of the house at various times. The present one was constructed in the second half of the nineteenth century. Above the ceiling are the remains of the bulkhead for one of those earlier staircases.
  • The main staircase was at the southern end of this room until the end of the eighteenth century, when extensions at the other end of the house, and the construction of an associated staircase, reduced the importance of this end of the house.

 

South wall

  • The wall above the left hand door is of timber studding construction. It is part of an outshot of the original house, constructed to accommodate a staircase.
  • The attractive built-in oak cupboard is of uncertain date.

 

Leave the Stone Hall by the right hand of the two doors in the far (south) wall, and proceed through the lobby to the main room.

 

The lobby

 

  • This remains as a reminder of the medieval cross passage of the hall. Until about 1800 its entrance door was opposite the door to the main room: this can be seen in the difference in the wall panelling, and a rub mark in the floor made by the door.

 

The medieval hall

 

  • The room is now completely panelled in early eighteenth century bolection panelling.
  • The easternmost panel in the south wall is wider than the others: this covers the former door to the withdrawing room.
  • Examine closely the panels adjacent to the central window. It may be seen that they have been moved closer to the window than originally intended. In the eighteenth century this was the entrance hall, and the front door, which was wider than the present window but not so high, was in this position. The attractive shutters and their hinges and other metal fittings are nineteenth century.

 

  • The fireplace is eighteenth century: the names of some of the Halhed family (who arrived in 1795) are inscribed on it.

 

  • This room was originally the medieval hall, and the sturdy timber framed structure survives behind the panelling, except for the window wall which was rebuilt in brick at the start of the eighteenth century.
  • The room was originally higher, and open to the roof. An open fire burned in the centre of the room: the smoke escaped through a roof vent. At the southern end (left side looking towards the windows) there was probably a dais raised a little above the general floor level. At the other end there was a cross passage, screened off from the main part of the hall. There were doors to the outside at both ends of the passage.

 

  • We are fortunate in having a detailed description of the house in about 1680. The room still had a medieval flavour, as it still had the cross passage at the northern end of the room. By this time the present beams and ceiling had already been installed and the room was no longer open to the roof. It was described as having richly painted panelling with golden ovolo. Quite apart from the painted panelling, some of the structure itself was painted: some of the paint survives behind the present panelling. The panelling at that time was oak. A small section survives, through having been used to fill in a small space within the tiny entrance lobby to the left of the fireplace through which you came.

 

Go through the door in the wall to the right of the windows

 

  • This room was originally part of the service wing of the medieval house.
  • The fireplace was restored to its current form early in the twentieth century.
  • Until the 1950s it was fully panelled in oak. In view of the status of the room in the seventeenth century it is probable that this panelling had been moved here from elsewhere, perhaps the main hall.
  • The attractive H-shaped hinges on the window shutters date from the eighteenth century.

 

Return to the former medieval hall, and then go through the door to the right of the fireplace and stop at the bottom of the stairs

 

The Entrance Hall

 

  • This was originally the solar or withdrawing room of the medieval house, where the owner's immediate family could withdraw from the servants and farm hands who lived and slept in the medieval hall.

 

  • The bolection wall panelling dates from the early eighteenth century.

 

  • The north wall has regular panelling, except for the last panel at the east end which is wider, and hides an opening into the medieval hall.
  • Behind the rest of the panelling on this north wall is a perfectly preserved timber framed stud wall infilled with wattle and daub which probably dates from the fifteenth century. It has lain undisturbed for nearly 300 years: it still has nails driven into the stud timbers to provide hanging hooks.

 

  • The panelling of the south wall is noticeably irregular, with two narrow panels. This is no accident: behind the panelling between the narrow panels is a wide late medieval fireplace, which is now roughly bricked in. This alteration was probably carried out when this room was converted into the main entrance hall about 1800.
  • To the right of the fireplace, where the fire alarms are now, there was a small set of pine shelves. These were probably used originally as a place of safe keeping for valuables.
  • The door at the east end now serves a small cupboard. It seems probable that this once opened onto a cramped staircase to the first floor.

 

  • The panelling on the wall with the entry door is irregular too. This is because this wall once had two sash windows instead of a door. These were removed to allow the door to be inserted, and the panelling altered to suit the new arrangements about 200 years ago.

 

  • The columns are a variation of the type called Greek Doric, fashionable at the end of the eighteenth century. They also date from about 1800.

 

  • Norman Shaw intended the entrance hall to be on a grand scale, larger than it is now. He included the large room and corridor behind the internal window and partition to the left of the staircase. Until 1945 visitors could enter the front door and leave through an external door in the corner of that room onto the path beside the moat.
  • Before 1945 that room was normally screened by a curtain where the partition is now. This was because the servants had to cross that part of the hall to reach the Dining room (or Ball room) to the right of the stairs. A corridor (now a cloakroom) under the stairs connected the Dining Rooms to the kitchens.

 

Go through the right hand door into the large drawing room on the front side of the house

 

Western Drawing Room

 

  • This well lit room originally dates from the eighteenth century: the marble fireplace probably dates from this period. The window wall, and the wall opposite the fireplace were rebuilt during the 1871-2 restoration, probably because of subsidence problems: these walls are built on the site of the medieval moat.

 

  • The main feature of the room is the bay of enormous sash windows which give a wide view onto the Park. This bay replaced a Regency bow window built about 1800.
  • Above the window is a curious pelmet made of broken china, believed to have been made at Yateley Hall. Before the war this room was cluttered with many other articles decorated in the same way.

 

  • The wall opposite the fireplace has a semicircular arch and a window. The picture window originally provided a view into a large conservatory built by Norman Shaw. The semi-circular arch is characteristic of Norman Shaw: Lord Armstrong's house at Cragside in Northumberland was remodelled at the same time as Yateley Hall, and Shaw used curved arches to effect there too. The shelf below the arch once hid the 1872 central heating radiators.
  • Look through this window. The rooms beyond were built for the school in three stages. When further classrooms were required, the new building was simply added on, leaving the existing exterior windows just as they were!

 

Go through the door at the right hand end of the wall opposite the window

 

Eastern Room: Dining Room/ Ball Room

 

  • This room was originally built in the eighteenth century, but was remodelled by Norman Shaw. He is responsible for the wooden panelling and for the attractive fireplace of blue Delft tiles.
  • Shaw also added the bay window: it gives a superb view across the canal to the gardens on the other side.
  • In Shaw's time there was a woodland garden of oak, holly and hornbeam trees planted by Mr Collett about 1840, together with an enormous cedar tree. The bank opposite was covered with purple rhododendrons, and this garden survived until the late 1980s.

 

  • The far end of the room, through the opening, is modern. In Shaw's design a pair of French doors opened into the conservatory, which extended to approximately the line of the far wall. The window in that wall is the one which was formerly above those doors.

 

  • The door to the left of the bay window used to access the corridor which allowed the servants to reach this room without interfering with the arrival of guests through the main entrance.

 

  • In Miss de Winton Corry's time this room served as a ball room: it has a sprung floor. It was in vain that she attempted to find husbands among the officer cadets from Sandhurst for her wards, the daughters of Sir Gordon Guggisberg, the former Governor of the Gold Coast, in West Africa.

 

  • The Convent used this room as their chapel, and the local Catholic congregation also used it until the present Catholic church was built.

 

Return out of the door to the right of the fireplace. Those who wish to leave without seeing the upper floors should leave through the front door. Otherwise start the upstairs tour.

 

 

 

INTERIOR TOUR OF YATELEY HALL: FIRST FLOOR

 

From the main entrance hall, go up the Main Staircase to the half landing

 

Main staircase

 

  • The oak staircase and its panelling were designed by Richard Norman Shaw, and date from 1871-1872. The heavy detailing is typical of his work. The upper arcade has a faintly Jacobean feel.
  • To achieve this grand staircase, which probably replaced a smaller one, he extended the house towards the moat. The three windows at the half landing gives a superb view across the moat and garden. During the morning the sun shines through these windows down the stairs in a delightful way.
  • The Victorian Chandelier replaces one sold when the school closed. The plaster rose was installed during the recent restoration.

 

Continue to the top of the stairs.

 

  • At the top of the stairs notice the door openings into the rooms at the front of the house. They both have the doors on the other side, with a much larger opening on the stairwell side. Norman Shaw placed larger doors into these openings, doors similar to those on the ground floor, to maintain the grand style of the staircase.

 

Turn left and go up the flight of stairs, through the fire door, immediately turn left and enter the right hand of the two doors

 

Eastern Guest Bedroom

 

  • This was the first of two principal guest bedrooms, redesigned by Norman Shaw, each with its associated dressing room.
  • This room is no longer as Shaw intended. Originally this room had two large south facing sash windows and the dormer window in the eastern ceiling did not exist.
  • It must then have been a beautiful room, with a splendid view over the southern part of the moat (which was longer then than it is now, extending as far as the weeping willow on the Wistaria Lane Development), and over the walled garden with its paths, clipped hedges, fruit trees and herbs.

 

  • This room is remarkable for the cambered ceiling, divided up by wooden ribs into panels. These are very similar to those at Lord Armstrong's house at Cragside, Northumberland. The objective at both houses was to give the maximum height to the rooms without disturbing the low exterior roof line of the building.

 

  • The treatment of the panels is of interest. Wallpaper shapes of this sort were very fashionable in 1872. They were called "Japanese" pies and fan motifs. The present ones date from 1949, so were presumably made by nuns.

 

  • The small fireplace originally had blue Delft tiles, a characteristic Norman Shaw feature. Unfortunately the surround of the fireplace was stolen, and the tiles damaged, together with a number of other fireplaces in the house during 1988. The original simple grate remains: the other features have been replaced.

 

Leave the room and enter the room at the front of the house, at the far end of the corridor

 

Western Guest Bedroom

 

  • This room, redesigned by Norman Shaw, is similar to the other guest bedroom, with its cambered ceilings, though in this case there are additional ribs along the room, to form a chequerboard pattern.

 

  • The fireplace is a Victorian replacement for the original fireplace, stolen in 1988, which was of purple Delft tiles.

 

Leave the room and turn immediately left

 

Former Attic Room

 

  • As soon as you are through this door, pause at the top of the stairs and look up at the light-well above.
  • The steps down are new, installed to satisfy the requirements of the fire regulations.
  • Until then there were steps, constructed in 1872, up to the small attic room above, which seemed to have little purpose. These 1872 steps were themselves an alteration: before that there was an opening in the east wall.
  • In earlier times there was a staircase here down to the ground floor.

 

Go down the steps

 

  • This room appears to be eighteenth century, but the building structure is much earlier, probably dating from the fifteenth century.
  • The early eighteenth panelling is unusual, as the upper panels themselves are not wood, but were lath and plastered with the bolection mouldings.
  • Before 1872 there was a door in the middle of the wall opposite the window.
  • On the window wall, the alterations to the panels reveal that there were originally two windows.

 

  • The marble fireplace dates from the nineteenth century.

 

  • The doorway in the wall to the right of the window has recently been reopened. There had been a doorway at this point before: it probably had the present door when it was a doorway before> In the mean time the door served a cupboard where the stairs now are.

 

Go through the door to the right of the window into the next room

 

Miss Nancy Guggisberg's Bedroom

 

  • This room was once used by Miss Nancy Guggisberg, one of Miss de Winton Corry's wards. Miss de Winton Corry had two wards: it was a way of augmenting her inadequate income.

 

  • This room was inserted into the upper part of the single storey medieval hall no later than the middle of the seventeenth century. This explains why the room has a very low ceiling, as it was essential to give the hall below a high ceiling.

 

Go through the door in the far wall, immediately next to the window

 

The Georgian Dressing Room

 

  • The Georgian panelling in this dressing room is different from the bolection wall panelling encountered elsewhere in the building, and dates from the late eighteenth century.
  • The cupboard opposite the window dates from the late nineteenth century.

 

Go through the far door

 

Miss Ena Guggisberg's Room

 

  • This room was used by Miss Ena Guggisberg, the other of Miss de Winton Corry's wards during the first half of this century. She could communicate with her sister via the dressing room.

 

  • The original structure of this room is medieval, but has been much altered. In particular the floor level was raised when the panelling was installed.

 

  • The bolection panelling of this room dates from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The variation in the forms of the bolection mouldings shows that the panelling has been altered and repaired on a number of occasions. Note in particular the wrong size panel to the left of the window, which reflects the fact that there were originally two windows.
  • The small blocked door in the wall opposite the window, at the fireplace end of the room may well have been associated with a staircase which once went up to the attic floor in that corner of this room.

 

  • The present eighteenth century fireplace replaces a nineteenth century marble one stolen in 1988.
  • Next to the fireplace, behind the panelling, on the window side of the fireplace, is a set of shelves, perhaps a hiding place for valuables, which predates the present panelling and the raising of the floor.

 

  • Of particular interest is the wall to the Georgian dressing room, and the pair of doors leading into it. The right hand one leads to that room, and has a small cupboard in the width of the wall on the right. Within this cupboard some of the timber structure of the wall may be seen.
  • The left hand door opens into a little cupboard. The boards in the back of it are vertical behind the door but horizontal to the left of the door, initially suggesting that the doors both once led through to the next room. In fact this is not the case, the structure of the wall is undisturbed timber framed wattle and daub, dating from the fifteenth century or earlier.
  • This wall, with its built in cupboards, is something of a mystery. Timber walls are usually very thin, typically four or five inches, and this is so elsewhere in the building. This wall is much thicker, and there are in fact two walls side by side on the ground floor, suggesting that the structures of the two parts of the house may have been constructed at different times. Normally new structures are simply jointed into the older part, and there is only one wall. One possible explanation is that one of the buildings was brought from some other site and re-erected next to the existing one. With a timber framed structure this is a relatively easy operation.

 

Go through the door to the right of the fireplace

 

Lobby

 

  • The wall to Miss Ena Guggisberg's room was an outside wall at least until the middle of the seventeenth century, and it is still there underneath the panelling.
  • Later this lobby (and part of Ena Guggisberg's room) became the site of a staircase. This leaves its traces in the panelling on the chimney stack wall, which was originally panelled only up to about 5 feet from the floor.

 

Go through the door opposite to that to Ena Guggisberg's room

 

Miss Gardiner's Room

 

  • Miss Gardiner was Miss de Winton Corry' housekeeper.
  • This room was constructed during the eighteenth century. The panelling is contemporary: the walls beneath are not plastered.
  • Again the panelling shows that there were once two windows.
  • Before this floor was built there was a single storey building on this site. The apex of the roof was behind the upper panel next to the entry door.
  • The eighteenth century fireplace is newly installed.

 

 

Go out of the room and lobby, and turn right onto the landing.

 

Kitchen Stairs

 

  • This landing is on two levels: the floor level of the higher part was raised when the panelling was installed in Miss Ena Guggisberg's room. The room on the other side of the stairs, on the moat side of the house was constructed in brick in the late seventeenth century.

 

  • The main features of this staircase and landing are the light-well and the arcade, both of which date from the late nineteenth century.
  • The attractive arcade is reminiscent of the one at the top of the oak stairs, and they may be contemporary. The construction of the light-well eliminated one of the attic rooms. The loss cannot have been great as the unlit attic room cannot have been more than a storage cupboard.
  • The panelling behind the stairs does not follow the stairs down because the panelling was already there when the stairs were constructed.
  • The present stairs are certainly the fourth and probably the fifth set which are known to have existed at this end of the old house, connecting the ground with the first floor.

 

Move along the corridor and through the opening to the bottom of the attic staircase

 

The Old Staircase

 

  • This staircase to the attic is the oldest surviving staircase in the building. The balustrade probably dates from the late seventeenth or possibly the very early eighteenth century.
  • The staircase used to continue down to the ground floor as well, in a similarly spiral way, with the bottom of the stairs roughly at the same position as those at the bottom of the attic stairs. The bottom of the stairs landed in the cross-passage of the great hall.
  • When the cross passage in the hall was taken out this became inconvenient.
  • The first alteration came when the building was extended towards the moat, and the flight to the ground floor was straightened, with the bottom of the stairs very close to the outside wall.
  • Later, probably about 1800, this was regarded as inconvenient, and a new staircase was constructed in the same general area as the present kitchen stairs, but its foot was in a different place.

 

  • The panelling dates from the eighteenth century, and encloses stud walls of various dates between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The attractive reeded architraves date from about 1800.

 

INTERIOR TOUR OF YATELEY HALL: THE ATTICS

 

Go up the attic stairs and turn into the corridor on the right

 

  • The attics accommodated the servants, so the quality of the accommodation, and the standard of the finishes were cruder than on the lower floors.

 

  • This corridor was partitioned off from the room to the right by vertical boards when the attic at the far end of the corridor was added in the eighteenth century.
  • On the left is a pair of cupboard doors with eighteenth century hinges. They now open onto the back of the stairwell: they originally served an store room in the centre of the house.

 

Continue along the corridor into the room

 

  • These rooms built in the early eighteenth century served as servants' bedrooms until the end of the second world war. Before 1990 this room had a boarded ceiling, and the wall on the right was made of Hessian on wood.

 

Go through the door in the wall on the left

 

  • Early in the C20 century, the chimney of this room once caught fire when the maids lit a fire in it to keep warm. The fire was not normally used and a bird had nested in the chimney. The fire brigade had to be called.
  • The door to the left of the blocked fireplace, is a very simple plank door with ledges: one of a number in the attics until 1989. Until 1990, when the opening was made into the next room, this door opened into a cupboard. When the Convent was here it held an eighteenth century bell, previously hung on the roof of the house. The bell was sold when the school closed.

 

Go through the pair of doors to the left of the fireplace, and enter the room: MIND YOUR HEAD on the cross beam

 

  • This room is one of the most curious in the house.
  • The complexity of the roof structure is difficult to unravel. The roof appears to have had a ridge along and across the house at different times. This is why the principal rafter comes down the window: the dormer window is later.
  • Before the attic to the north (from which you have just come) was constructed, the roof came down to meet the north wall. Some of that roof still exists behind the east wall, and still retains some of its tiling battens, even though a later roof has been built above it.
  • A staircase came up at the corner of the room where you entered: its site is revealed by some of the cuts in the floorboards. This staircase was probably removed about 1700. A post near the top of the stairs used to support the roof near the east wall where the low beam is.

 

  • The heavy panelled seventeenth century door is constructed in planks. It has interesting ironwork fixed with the original nails.

 

Go through the door in the far wall, through the door opposite and through the door at the other end of that room into the corridor. Beware the gradient and steps in the floor

 

  • The severe side gradient in the floor is the result of jerry built alterations in the era before building regulations!
  • Originally all the rooms in this part of the attic were accessed by going through one room to the next. This did not provide much privacy, so about 1800 the present corridor was constructed, by cutting through the principal rafters of the roof which inconveniently came down across the new corridor. An extra horizontal oak beam was added under the floor, but both this and the original beam cracked and bent to lower the floor, and ceiling below by about 9 inches. In response to the problems the ceiling below was re-levelled more than once, but until steel beams were inserted during the recent restoration nothing was done to stabilise the structure.

 

  • The pretty iron casement window at the end of the corridor dates from the sixteenth century, and is the last survivor of a number which the house is known to have had. The details of the ironwork catch merit close inspection. The reglazed leaded light is a replica of the original.

 

Go through the door to the right of the iron window, and go through into the end room

 

  • This is an amazing room. Opposite the window can be seen a roof structure (probably fifteenth century) which has been cut off and a later roof has been built on top of it. The roof to the right is later and higher, and finally the present dormer was added in 1872.
  • The late nineteenth century open lead lined gutter takes water from two roof "sumps" through to the front roof.
  • The beam above the floor, and its associated iron work, is probably twentieth century, and supports a failed structural member in the front wall.
  • The wall to the east has the remains of an earlier doorway which once led on to further attic rooms which were swept away when the 1872 rebuilding took place.

 

Return along the corridor to the attic stairs, and go down to the first floor, turn left and continue along the corridors to the main staircase. Descend the main staircase and leave the house through the front door.

 

(c)R H Johnston. Published by The Yateley Society, 1991

 


 

Further extensive survey material is on the passworded site

 

http://www.hants.org.uk/yateley/yhp/yathall.htm

 

This site is passworded for privacy and third party copyright reasons, and not available to the general public.

 

A very large collection of photographs, and a video of a tour of Yateley Hall also exist, but are not yet web accessible.

 


 

Created by RHJ 26.3.2008, revised 26.3.2008 (c) The Yateley Society, 2008

 

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