Building record TYN 152 - Outbuilding at Grimston Hall, Grimston Lane

Grimston Hall occupies an ancient manorial site named as Grimestuna in the Domesday Survey. It was acquired by John Candish or Cavendish in the mid-13th century and remained in his knightly family until 1591. A map of the estate drawn by Isaac Johnson in the late-18th or early-19th century shows the outline of a large park depicted by Kirby in 1736 to the west of the house, but by this time the park had been enclosed to form arable land and the hall was a tenanted farmhouse with a substantial 235 acres. it is impossible to establish whether the present house lies on the exact site of its predecessor, although the listing description refers tantalisingly to a possible ‘earlier core’ pre-dating its current allegedly early-18th century configuration. In most cases the process of replacing large country houses with tenanted farmhouses involved the retention of part of the building to avoid unnecessary expense. If this occurred at Grimston Hall the remaining early-16th century outbuilding is likely either to have adjoined the main house, or at least have been in very close proximity. This feature alone indicates it was designed as something more than a utilitarian agricultural building.

The outbuilding is an ostentatious, high-status structure consisting of brickwork on its lower storey at time when brick was still an expensive display feature. The narrow, plank-like braces of the crown-post roof (quickly superseded by side-purlin technology from the 1530s onwards) are typical of the 16th century’s first quarter, although a date at the very end of the 15th century cannot be ruled out. Interestingly the down-braces linking the posts to the tie-beams are more typical of the 14th and 15th centuries and may have been intended both for decorative effect and to lend a degree of age and grandeur The four-bay first-floor chamber is still a large and impressive space, but originally extended by at least one bay further to the east as indicated by the open truss at the present truncated gable. The lower storey also appears to have formed a single area as stated in the listing description. Both floors were well lit, with diamond mullions on the lower and possibly more exotic square-set mullions on the upper. The original window set in the brickwork of the northern wall is a particularly rare survivor.

The first-floor chamber represents an exceptionally well preserved and impressive early Tudor space that has altered little if at all since its construction. The high arch-braces were intended to maximise headroom and still remain completely intact – again representing a rare survival given that most braces of this kind were removed from the late-16th century onwards. The building may well have operated as a stable in the 19th century given the presence of an enclosed yard with open-sided shelter-sheds on the south, and it is possible that its lower storey performed this function from the outset (albeit for expensive riding horses rather than agricultural animals which would have been kept in the farm yard at some distance from the house). The first-floor chamber was almost certainly built as a ‘court hall’ adjoining or close to the house, and a number of parallels are known in the area (S1).